MARY CUSTIS LEE
CHAPTER
No.1864
UNITED DAUGHTERS
OFTHE
CONFEDERACY
I
JR
J&
PRESENTED TO THE
UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA
Los ANGELES
JUNE 3, 1928
To THE STUDENT OF OUR
NATION'S HISTORY, THERE
IS NO CHAPTER MORE INTER-
ESTING OR THRILLING, THAN
THE STOKY OF THE SOUTH
AND THE GREAT ROLE IT HAS
PLAYED IN OUH NATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT.
HISTORY
OF THE
OF THE
SOUTHERN STATES.
5 the
HISTORY OF Th
p SOUTHERN STATES
;\rED to RECORD the
SOUTH'S PART in the MAKING
"CAN NA'l
BETTY WASHINGTON
Sister of George Washington
1
TV C01
Lbi
PUB
THE SOUTH in the
Building of the Nation
HISTORY OF THE
SOUTHERN STATES
DESIGNED to RECORD the
SOUTH'S PART in the MAKING
of the AMERICAN NATION;
to PORTRAY the CHARACTER
and GENIUS, to CHRONICLE
the ACHIEVEMENTS and PROG
RESS and to ILLUSTRATE the
LIFE and TRADITIONS of the
SOUTHERN PEOPLE
VOLUME X
COMPLETE IN TWELVE VOLUMES
T^SOUTHERN HISTORICAL
PUBLICATION SOCIETY
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
-t
Jt_
COPYRIGHT,
EY
THE SOUTHERN HISTORICAL PUBLICATION SOCIETY
v.io
EDITORS-IN-CHIEF
I — History of the States
JULIAN ALVIN CARROLL CHANDLER, PhJX, LLJX
Professor of History, Richmond College
// — The Political History
FRANKLIN LAFAYETTE RILEY, A.M., PhJX
Professor of History, University of Mississippi
/// — The Economic History
JAMES CURTIS BALLAGH, PhJX, LLJX
Associate Professor of American History
Johns Hopkins University
IV — The Literary and Intellectual Life
JOHN BELL HENNEMAN, M.A., PhJX
Professor of English Literature, University of the South
V — Fiction
EDWIN MIMS
Professor of English, University of North Carolina
VI — Oratory
Hon. THOMAS E. WATSON
Author of "Life of Thomas Jefferson,"
"Life of Napoleon," etc.
VII— The Social Life
SAMUEL CHILES MITCHELL, Ph.D., LL.D., D.D.
President of the University of South Carolina
VIII — Biography
WALTER LYNWOOD FLEMING, A.M., PhJX
Professor of History, Louisiana State University
History of the Social Life
of the South
VOLUME X
CONTRIBUTORS
PART I
SOCIAL LIFE OF THE UPPER SOUTH
PHILIP ALEXANDER BRUCE, LL.B., author of The Economic History
of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century.
SOCIAL LIFE IN THE LOWER SOUTH
MONTROSE J. MOSES, B.S., author of The Literature of the South.
SOCIAL LIFE OF THE APPALACHIAN REGION
MARTHA McCHESNEY BERRY, Director of the Berry School, Rome, Ga.
EUROPEAN INFLUENCES IN THE SOUTH
EDWIN MIMS, B.A., M.A., Ph.D., Professor of English Literature, Trin-
ity College, Durham, N. C. ; editor South Atlantic Quarterly.
THE ARISTOCRACY OF THE NORTHERN NECK
DOUGLAS S. FREEMAN, A.B., Richmond, Va.
THE OLD REGIME IN VIRGINIA
ARMISTEAD C. GORDON, LL.D., Rector of the University of Virginia;
author of Congressional Currency; A Virginian of the Old School;
etc.
PART H
THE RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH
THE ENGLISH IN THE SOUTH
JOHN CALVIN METCALF, Professor of English, Richmond College.
THE FRENCH IN THE SOUTH
ALCEE FORTIER, Litt.D., Professor of Romance Languages, Tulane Uni-
versity ; author of History of Louisiana, etc.
THE SPANISH IN THE SOUTH
CHARLES WOODWARD HUTSON, Member of American Historical As-
sociation.
CONTRIBUTORS.
THE GERMANS IK THE SOUTH
J. HANNO DEILER, Professor Emeritus of German in the Tulane Uni-
versity of Louisiana, New Orleans, La.
THE JEWS IN THE SOUTH
BARNETT A. ELZAS, LL.D., Rabbi of K.K. Beth Elohim, Charleston,
S. C.
THE INDIAN IN THE SOUTH
CHARLES ALEXANDER EASTMAN (Ohiyesa), author of Indian Boy-
hood, Old Indians Days, etc.
THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH
ALFRED HOLT STONE, LL.B., author of Studies in the American Race
Problem.
PART III
THE EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH
EDUCATION IN THE SOUTHERN COLONIES
FRANKLIN VERZELIUS NEWTON PAINTER, A.M., D.D., Professor of
Pedagogy, Roanoke College, Salem, Va.
EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH BEFORE THE WAR
ROBERT BURWELL FULTON, A.M., LL.D., Superintendent of The
Miller School, Virginia ; formerly Chancellor of University of Mis-
sissippi and President of Southern Education Association.
EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR
C. MITCHELL, Ph.D., LL.D., President of the University of South
Carolina, Columbia, S. C.
HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH
JAMES H. KIRKLAND, Ph.D., LL.D., D.C.L., Chancellor of Vanderbilt
University, Nashville, Tenn.
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES OF THE SOUTH
GEORGE H. DENNY, A.M., Ph.D., LL.D., President of Washington and
Lee University, Lexington, Va.
THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN THE SOUTHERN STATES
MART K. BENEDICT, A.B., Ph.D., President of Sweet Briar College,
Sweet Briar, Va.
SECONDARY EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH
WILLIAM H. HAND, Professor of Secondary Education, University ot
South Carolina, Columbia, S. C.
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH
WILLIAM KNOX TATE, Principal of Memminger Normal School, Charles-
ton, S. C.
NORMAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH
DAVID BANCROFT JOHNSON, A.M., LL.D., President of Winthrop
Normal and Industrial College of South Carolina ; formerly Vice-
President of National Teachers' Association.
MEDICAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH
GEORGE BEN JOHNSTON, M.D., LL.D., formerly President of Rich-
mond Academy of Medicine and Surgery ; President of American
Surgical Association, 1904.
THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH
EDGAR YOUNG MULLINS, D.D., LL.D., President of Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky.
CONTRIBUTORS.
LEGAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH
WILLIAM REYNOLDS VANCE, M.A.. Ph.D., LL.D., Dean of the Faculty
of Law, George Washington University, Washington, D. C.
TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH
WILLIAM GILMER PERRY, Professor of English, Georgia School of
Technology, Atlanta, Ga.
INDU8TEIAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH
PATRICK HUES MELL, Ph.D., LL.D., President of Clemson Agricultural
College, South Carolina.
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTHERN STATES
SEAMAN A. KNAPP, LL.D., Agent in Charge Farmers' CoSperatlve
Demonstration Work in the Southern States.
KINDERGARTEN IN THE SOUTH
ALICE N. PARKER, Richmond, Va.
GENERAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES IN THE SOUTH
HENRY SMITH PRITCHETT, Ph.D., LL.D., President of Carnegie Foun-
dation for the Advancement of Teaching.
EDUCATIONAL IDEALS AND TENDENCIES
PHILANDER PRIESTLEY CLAXTON, B.A., M.A., Litt.D., Professor of
Education, University of Tennessee, President Southern Education
Association.
PART IV
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE SOUTH
DENOMINATIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENT
ROBERT H. PITT, D.D., The Religious Herald, Richmond, Va.
THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH IN VIRGINIA
RANDOLPH HARRISON McKIM, D.D., LL.D., Rector of Church of the
Epiphany, Washington, D. C.
RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN THE SOUTH
ROBERT STRANGE, D.D., Bishop of the Diocese of East Carolina, Wil-
mington, N. C.
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN THE SOUTH
THOMAS CARY JOHNSON, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Ecclesiastical His-
tory and Polity, Union Theological Seminary of Virginia.
Y. M. C. A. IN RELATION TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOUTH
W. D. WEATHERFORD, Ph.D., Student Secretary of the International
Committee of Y. M. C. Associations.
SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN THE SOUTH
ISAAC J. VAN NESS, D.D., President of Sunday School Editors' Asso-
ciation ; formerly editor of Christian Index.
THE LAYMAN'S MOVEMENT IN THE SOUTH
HON. JOSHUA LEVERING, Vice-Presldent of American Baptist Publica-
tion Society, Baltimore Md.
THE SOUTHERN PULPIT
WARREN A'. CANDLER, D.D., LL.D., Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal
Church South, Atlanta, Ga.
THE INFLUENCE OF PROTESTANTISM IN THE SOUTH
THOMAS CARY JOHNSON, P.D., LL.D., Professor of Ecclesiastical His-
tory and Polity, Union Theological Seminary of Virginia, Richmond,
Va.
vii
CONTRIBUTORS.
THE INFLUENCE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH UPON SOUTHERN LIFE
LUCIAN JOHNSTON, M.A., St. Ann's Church, Baltimore, Md.
THE INFLUENCE OF JUDAISM IN THE SOUTH
H. G. ENELOW, Rabbi Temple Adath Israel, Louisville, Ky.
PART V
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN THE SOUTH
TEMPERANCE REFORM IN THE SOUTH
JOHN E. WHITE, D.D., Pastor of Second Baptist Church, Atlanta, Ga.
CHILD LABOR IN THE SOUTH
AUGUST KOHN, Manager Columbia Bureau, The News and Courier;
^* author of The Cotton Mills of South Carolina.
CARE OF DEFECTIVES IN THE SOUTH
WILLIAM P. DREWRY, M.D., Superintendent of Central State Hospital,
Petersburg, Va.
FARMERS COOPERATIVE DEMONSTRATION WORK IN THE SOUTH
SEAMAN ASAHEL KNAPP, LL.D., Special Agent United States of De-
partment of Agriculture, in charge Farmers' Cooperative Demonstra-
tion Work.
SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS IN THE SOUTH
^ FREDERICK W. NEVE, D.D., Archdeacon of the Blue Ridge Diocese of
Virginia.
WOMAN'S WORK IN THE SOUTH
-x""' LOUISA B. POPPENHEIM, Chairman Council Committee General Federa-
tion of Women's Clubs, Charleston, S. C.
^ WOMAN'S PART IN THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS OF THE SOUTH
MRS. B. B. MUNFORD, President of Richmond Education Association,
Richmond, Va.
FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SOUTH
HILL MONTAGUE, Richmond, Va.
SOCIAL TENDENCIES OF THE SOUTH
GUS W. DYER, M.A., B.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Economics and
Sociology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
PART VI
THE AESTHETIC LIFE OF THE SOUTH
PAINTING IN THE SOUTH
HUGER ELLIOTT, Director of Rhode Island School of Design, Provi-
dence, R. I.
SCULPTURE IN THE SOUTH
MRS. CHARLES C. BOSHER, Richmond, Va.
ARCHITECTURE IN THE SOUTH
J. C. METCALF, M.A., Professor of English, Richmond College, Richmond,
Va.
POTTERY IN THE SOUTH
MRS. JOHN ROSE FICKLEN, New Orleans, La.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME X
PART I.
THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
CHAPTER I.
SOCIAL LIFE OF THE UPPER SOUTH.
Social Life Before War of Secession 1
Influence of Slavery 3
Effect of the Destruction of Slavery 5
Present Social Life of the City 8
Present Social Life of the Country 11
Social Identification With the North 12
Influence of the Negro Population 14
CHAPTER H.
SOCIAL LIFE IN THE LOWER SOUTH.
Territorial Basis for the Lower South 16
An Inherited Social System 18
The Rise of the Lower South 20
The Cotton Kingdom 22
Agriculture and the Negro 25
Intellectual Limitations 28
Slave Labor 29
The Literary Isolation 32
Civil Conflict and the Lower South 34
The New South 36
CHAPTER in.
SOCIAL LIFE OF THE APPALACHIAN REGION.
The Territory 38
The Mountaineers 38
The Work for the Children 41
CHAPTER IV.
EUROPEAN INFLUENCES IN THE SOUTH.
Diverse Elements in Southern Society 44
English Influence in the South 47
French Influence in the South 50
Jefferson's Interest in Foreign Educational Methods 52
German Influences in the South 58
Spanish and French Influences in the South 61
CHAPTER V.
THE ARISTOCRACY OF THE NORTHERN NECK.
The Settlement of the Northern Neck 63
Special Characteristics 66
Homes as Social Centres 68
The Church in the Social Life 71
Industry and Education 72
The Decline of the Old System 74
ix
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
THE OLD REGIME IN VIRGINIA.
Characteristics of the Period 77
Slavery and the Old Regime 87
The Home Circle rfjch
Characteristics of the Men and Women of the Old Regime tJ2 ,
PART II.
THE RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH
CHAPTER I.
THE ENGLISH IN THE SOUTH.
I. Colonial 97
Seventeenth Century 97
Eighteenth Century 101
II. National 107
CHAPTER H.
THE FRENCH IN THE SOUTH.
History 118
French Huguenots 119
The Creoles of Louisiana 121
The French in the South 123
CHAPTER III.
THE SPANISH IN THE SOUTH.
Spain's Great Opportunity 126
Discovery of Florida 127
Mengndez Succeeds 127
Destruction of the French Colony 128
East Florida 128
West Florida 121)
Sea Power Lost by Spain 130
War Between English and Spanish Colonies 130
Georgia Founded 131
The Stirring Times of Oglethorpe 131
Florida English, Louisiana Spanish 132
West Florida Spanish Again 132
Minorcan Colonists 132
All Florida Spanish Again 133
Florida Ceded to the United States 133
New Mexico 133
French Claims Lead to Spanish Settlement 134
Missions and Presidios in Texas 134
Spain Mistress of Texas, Louisiana and West Florida 136
Mexico and Florida Lost to Spain 130
Texas Lost to Mexico 137
New Mexico Lost to Mexico 137
CHAPTER IV.
THE GERMANS IN THE SOUTH.
General Statistics < 139
German Settlements in the South 140
CHAPTER V.
THE JEWS IN THE SOUTH.
Jewish Record in Southern History 151
The Jew as a Patriot 165
The Jew as a Citizen 157
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
THE INDIAN IN THE SOUTH.
The Powhatans 160
The Cherokees, Creeks, Chickasaws and Choctaws 160
The Semlnoles 163
CHAPTER VH.
THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH.
American Negro Origins 166
The Negro Under Slavery 174
The Free Negro Before 1865 179
The Negro Since Emancipation 181
PART III.
THE EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH
CHAPTER I.
EDUCATION IN THE SOUTHERN COLONIES.
Conditions and Development 184
Early Interest in Education 186
Principal Factors 187
Philanthropic Spirit 188
Libraries and Colleges 190
Establishment of Other Schools • 192
Rural Schools and Education of Girls 194
CHAPTER II.
EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH BEFORE THE WAR. x
Conditions and Limitations of Southern Educational Efforts.... 196
Institutions in Virginia 198
Maryland 199
North Carolina 199
South Carolina 201
Georgia 202
Tennessee 204
Kentucky 204
Other States 205
Educational and Intellectual Development a Factor in Develop-
ment of Nation 206
CHAPTER HI.
EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.
I. The Liberal Tendency 209
II. The National Tendency 209
III. The Industrial Tendency 210
The Isolation of the South 211
The Three Tasks of the South 212
Three Educational Advances 215
CHAPTER IV.
HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH.
Early Beginnings 21£
State Movements 22C
Early Religious Efforts 222 1
Later Denominational Foundations 226 .
General Character of Ante-Bellum Colleges 227 /
Renewal of Effort After the War of Secession 228
Inner History of Higher Education Since the War 232
si
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES OP THE SOUTH.
Preface 237
The Beginnings of Higher Education 237
State Universities 242
Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges 247
Denominational Colleges and Universities 249
Non-Sectional Colleges and Universities 253
The Higher Education of Women 254
The Higher Education of Negroes 255
Conclusion 255
List of Colleges and Universities in the South 255
CHAPTER VI.
THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN THE SOUTHERN
STATES.
Progress Since 1860 260
I. Academic Standards 261
Colleges for Women of High Academic Standards 261
Coeducational Colleges 263
Normal and Industrial Colleges 264
Colleges Having no Fixed Standards 266
II. Endowment 268
CHAPTER VII.
SECONDARY EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH.
Grammar Schools 272
The Academies 274
State Support of High Schools 277
Conclusion 279
CHAPTER VIII.
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH.
The Problem of Elementary Education 282
Southern Interest in Education 285
Development Since the War 288
CHAPTER IX.
NORMAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH 294-303
CHAPTER X.
MEDICAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH.
Medical Practice in the Colonies 303
Medical Colleges in the South 305
Alabama 305
Arkansas 305
Georgia 305
Kentucky 305
Louisiana 305
Maryland 305
Mississippi 306
Missouri 306
North Carolina 306
South Carolina 306
Tennessee 306
Texas 306
Virginia 306
West Virginia 306
Equipment and Curriculum of the Medical Colleges 306
State Aid to Medical Colleges 308
Rank of Colleges 308
Accomplishments of Southern Medical Colleges 309
xii
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XI.
THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH.
Theological Schools 312
Some Characteristics and Results 318
Endowments 322
CHAPTER XII.
LEGAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTHERN STATES.
William and Mary College 325
Transylvania University 329
The University of Virginia 333
The Cumberland University Law School 336
Public Law at South Carolina College 338
Developments After the War of Secession 340
CHAPTER XIII.
TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH.
The Economic Growth of the South 345
Technical Training Needed for Young Men of the South 347
What Technical Education is 348
Conditions and Needs 350
History of Technical Education in the South 352
CHAPTER XTV.
INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH 357-370
CHAPTER XV.
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTHERN STATES.
The Morrill Bill 370
The Hatch Bill 372
Farmers' Institutes 373
Agriculture in Primary and Secondary Schools 373
Work of the Department of Agriculture 374
Farmers' Unions 375
Agricultural Press : Rural Free Delivery 376
Demonstration Methods 377
What the Agricultural College Should Be and Teach 378
CHAPTER XVI.
THE KINDERGARTEN IN THE SOUTH.
The First Kindergarten 381
Kindergarten Associations 382
Importance of the Kindergarten 383
Growth of Kindergartens in South 384
CHAPTER XVII.
GENERAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES IN THE SOUTH.
The Peabody Education Fund 387
The John F. Slater Fund 389
The Southern Education Board 390
The General Education Board 392
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching 394
The Russell Sage Foundation 896
The Jeanes Fund for Negro Rural Schools 397
xiii
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVIII.
EDUCATIONAL IDEALS AND TENDENCIES IN THE SOUTH.
Early Ideals and Tendencies 398
Changes Wrought by the War. . 403
Schools For Negro Education 405
Longer School Terms 412
Public High Schools 412
Better Support of State Colleges and Universities 414
Correlation and Definite Standards 415
Higher Standard of Qualification for Teachers 416
Adaptation of the Education of the Schools to Life 41 7
Negro Education 418
Education of Women 420
Compulsory School Attendance 421
Improvement of Schoolnouses and Grounds 422
Unity and Economy 423
Large Rural Population 424
Two Distinct Races 425
Poverty 425
PART IV.
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
CHAPTER I.
DENOMINATIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENT.
Numerical Strength and Work of the Various Religious Bodies. . . 430
Special Features of the Religious Life of the South 434
Organized Benevolence 435
The Missionary Spirit 436
CHAPTER H.
THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH IN VIRGINIA'.
The First Church Established at Jamestown 437
Religious Impulse of the Colony 438
The Virginians' Services to New England 440
The Church's Contributions to American Civil Liberty 441
Jamestown the Cradle of Liberty 443
Attitude of Church toward Revolution 444
Contribution of Laity to Civil and Religious Liberty 445
First Statute of Complete Religious Liberty 447
Eminent Members of the Established Church and Their In-
fluence 450
CHAPTER in.
RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
The Protestant Episcopal Church 454
The Roman Catholic Church 455
The Presbyterian Church 457
The Baptist Church 458
The Methodist Church 460
The Disciples of Christ 462
The Negro 463
Other Movements 464
CHAPTER IV.
DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN THE SOUTH.
Religious Liberty in the Colonies 466
The Act of Toleration 468
Rev. Francis Makemie and the Presbyterians 468
The Efforts of Rev. Samuel Davies 471
The Baptists of Virginia 474
The Virginia Bill of Rights 475
Support ot Religion by the State 479
xiv
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION IN RELATION TO
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOUTH.
History and Work of the Association 482
Contributions of the Young Men's Christian Associations to the
Religious Life of the South 48T
CHAPTER VI.
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL IN THE HISTORY OF THE SOUTH.
Early Southern Idea of Sunday School 492
Work of the Sunday School Union 493
Slavery Question a Factor in Religious Life of South 494
The War of Secession a Hindrance to Sunday School Work 496
International Uniform Lesson System Adopted 497
Denominational Work 498
Sunday Schools Among Negroes 499
CHAPTER VH.
THE LAYMEN'S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT IN THE SOUTH.
History of the Movement 500
Southern Presbyterians 503
Southern Baptists 505
Southern Metnodlsts 507
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SOUTHERN PULPIT.
Religion in the South 510
Some Distinguished Names of the Southern Pulpit 515
CHAPTER IX.
THE INFLUENCE OF PROTESTANTISM IN THE SOUTH.
The Kinds of Protestantism 527
The Continued Prevalence of Protestantism Compared with that
of Catholicism and Judaism 532
Some Particular Aspects of Southern Protestantism 533
CHAPTER X.
THE INFLUENCE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH UPON SOUTH-
ERN LIFE.
Past History 538
The Future 546
CHAPTER XI.
THE INFLUENCE OF JUDAISM IN THE SOUTH.
The Southern Jew as a Patriot 552
The Jews and Religious Liberty 555
The Jews in Southern Industrial Development 558
The Jew in the Liberal Professions, the Arts and Sciences 560
The Jew in Southern Philanthropy 565
PART V.
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
CHAPTER I.
TEMPERANCE REFORM IN THE SOUTH.
Early History of Liquor Traffic in the South 568
Beginning of the Prohibition Movement 569
Some Characteristic Facts of Prohibition 571
Noble Sectionalism 576
The New Issues 579
XV
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER II.
CHILD LABOR IN THE SOUTH.
What Child Labor Means 582
The Number Employed 584
What the Mill Owners Have Done 589
The Laws on Child Labor 592
CHAPTER III.
CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE DEFECTIVES IN THE
SOUTH 597-602
CHAPTER IV.
FARMER'S COOPERATIVE DEMONSTRATION WORK IN THE
SOUTHERN STATES.
Many Reforms Needed in Rural Life 603
The Remedy Offered by the Farmer's Cooperative Demonstration
Work 604
Organization of this Special Work 605
Instructions to the Farmer 606
Field Schools 606
Instruction Confined to a Few Essential Subjects 608
Special Features of the Work 608
Effect of the Work on the Farmer 609
Rural Improvement the Natural Result of this Work 611
CHAPTER V
SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
Settlements in the Mountains 616
CHAPTER VI.
WOMAN'S WORK IN THE SOUTH.
Southern Women in the Social and Economic Life 623
Hospital and Charity Work 624
Memorial and Educational Work 629
Work of Southern Club Women 633
Young Women's Christian Association and Other Association
Work 635
The Southern Women . in Literature 636
Conclusion 637
CHAPTER VII.
WOMAN'S PART IN THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS OF THE
SOUTH.
The Southern Woman's Fitness for Educational Work 638
Various Spheres of Work 640
School Improvement League Work 643
CHAPTER VIII.
FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SOUTH.
Free Masonry 645
Odd Fellows 648
Red Men 649
Knights of Pythias. 649
The Elks 650
Characteristics and Benefits of Fraternal Organizations 650
CHAPTER IX.
SOCIAL TENDENCIES IN THE SOUTH.
The Industrial Revolution in the South 654
Life in the Rural South 657
svj
CONTENTS
PART VI.
THE AESTHETIC LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
CHAPTER I.
PAINTING IN THE SOUTH.
Conditions Not Favorable to Artistic Development 674
Southern-Born Artists and Their Works 679
CHAPTER H.
SCULPTURE IN THE SOUTH.
The Awakening of the Artistic Temperament 682
Progress Since the War 685
Southern Sculptors 686
CHAPTER III.
ARCHITECTURE IN THE SOUTH.
General Character of Architecture in the South 687
Domestic Architecture of English Origin 690
Prevailing Architectural Types in Public Buildings and Churches. 693
The French and Spanish Types 695
CHAPTER IV.
POTTERY IN THE SOUTH.
Historical 698
Modern Clay Industries of the Southern States 701
ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOLUME X.
PAGE
Lady Washington's Eeception PHOTOGRAVURE FRONTISPIECE
University of Virginia, Charlotteville, Va 04
Residence of the Tayloa Family, Mount Airy, V» 68
The Grymes Residence, Brandon, Va 70
Drayton Hall, on the Ashley Hirer 72
Pringle Residence, Charleston 72
Washington at His Home 86
Martha Washington 92
Dolly Madison 94
Marriage of Pocahontas 98
Rigaud, LaTrobe, Grouchy, LaudonniSre and Lallemand 120
New Braunfels, Texas 149
Indian Method of Capturing Wild Horses 162
William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va 192
College Hall, Vanderbilt University and University of Tennessee.. 232
Wofford College and Washington and Lee University 240
"The Quad," University of Alabama 246
University of Texas 248
University of Mississippi 250
Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, Va 252
Georgia School of Technology 352
Hev. George Whitfield 460
Thomas Campbell 462
First Prayer in Congress 478
Prayer in Stonewall Jackson's Camp 612
Home of the First Catholic Seminary in the United States .... 640
Interior of the Cathedral, Baltimore, Md 640
The Cathedral at Baltimore 646
Cardinal James Gibbons 650
Mississippi State Hospital and First Asylum in America 690
State Hospital for the Insane, Columbia, S. C 698
State Hospital for Colored Insane, Goldsboro, N. C 600
Tuberculosis Cottage, Central State Hospital 602
The Bryce Hospital, Tuscaloosa, Ala 602
Symbolic Figure of "The South" 684
Statue of Jefferson Davia..,. 68ft
PEEFACE TO VOLUME X
HIS is an attempt at self-interpretation
upon the part of the South. Self -interpre-
tation is, perforce, a delicate undertaking,
with certain inherent limitations. Yet owing to
singular conditions it seemed proper to elicit the
view of Southern people upon Southern issues.
The Social Life of the South abounds in romance,
tragedy, and pathos, strangely mingled in its cheq-
uered course; and its present problems, as well as
its dramatic past, enlist the interest and sympa-
thies of mankind. Problems are not peculiar to the
South. Every country has its own perplexing ques-
tions. It has, however, to be remarked that in other
places the issue of such difficulties is assured, how-
ever great the effort and patience needful to bring
them to a conclusion; whereas the problem of the
South has not as yet let fall any hint as to its
denouement.
The South is not made, but a-making. Social
forces here are in ferment. Material development
is advancing with rapid strides. Education is dis-
playing signal energies in the process of democra-
tizing society. Sectionalism is retreating before a
revival of loyalty to the Nation. Eeligious agencies
are adjusting themselves in a statesman-like way
to the demands of the changing order. Women are
showing rare insight and initiative in furthering
social causes. Political crystallization is breaking
up, and industrial leaders are becoming a new
power in public affairs. While all these shuttlecock
xix
xx PEEFACE.
changes are taking place, so sound and conserva-
tive are the instincts of the people as a whole that
the ideals of personal honor and the traditions of
loyalty to home and state abide to enrich present
forces in Southern life.
This book is not put forth as final. It is designed
only as an exponent of the expanding energies and
ideals of this section. It is conceived in response
to the call of the present, and is vibrant with the
forces of the future. If our fathers in 1861 were
willing to die for the South, it behooves us, their
sons, to live for it.
I wish to thank fpr their kindly cooperation the
writers of the following papers. Their courtesy
and patience have smoothed many difficulties.
S. C. M.
INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME X
HEBE are several Souths. This is true
geographically, historically and socially. In
climate, soil and products there are wide dif-
ferences between the Upper and Lower
South, while the Appalachian region presents a sharp
contrast to the Coastal Plain. On the alluvial lands
of Mississippi cotton is virtually the sole crop; in
portions of Virginia the tobacco plant still engages
chief attention; around Charleston, S. C., rice and
tea flourish; and in the coves of the mountains of
east Tennessee are ensconced a hardy folk who
wrest a scant livelihood from the rocky soil, while
beside them have recently sprung up mining camps
that have tapped unexplored mineral resources.
Despite the current impression as to the solidarity
of the South, geographical unity is lacking. Nature
offers no reason for uniformity in thought and
social custom in this section. On the contrary,
suggestive variety is presented on every hand by
physical conditions which should normally cause
cleavages in society, break up hardening customs,
and develop local individuality and political inde-
pendence. Monotony is by no means the dictate of
nature as to the trend of Southern life and ideals.
Historically, the same contrasts appear in eco-
nomic tendencies, social habits and political thought
in the successive periods of the South 's experience,
extending over three hundred years. Four eras
may be easily distinguished. First was the pre-
cotton period, dating from the settlement upon the
xxii INTRODUCTION.
James in 1607 down to the invention of Whitney's
cotton gin in 1793. From that hour the mere grow-
ing of the cotton plant by the labor of black slaves
absorbed almost all energies and laid the basis for
the dominance of the Lower South in the racial and
political issues of the time, which clustered more
and more about the defence of the slave system in
contrast to the free and trained labor of the North.
The War between the States and Keconstruction con-
stitute another well-marked epoch, when the display
of heroic energy in battle was followed quickly by
prostration and sorrow so deep as to have over-
whelmed a less self-reliant and insistent brood of
men. The last two decades have ushered in a new
age, in which industrialism has made its advent,
placing the factory adjacent to the farm, so that
both profit by the cooperative union. The present
South is surging with all the complex forces of
American industrial democracy, while the survivals
of the old social order lend interest and perplexity
to these engrossing problems.
The changes in the trend of social and political
forces in the South answer to these four economic
periods, as effects are related to causes. Prior to
the ascendency of the cotton plant, many of the
leaders, particularly in Virginia, were ardently
national and eager for the emancipation of the
slaves. When the colonial patriots met for the first
time in the Continental Congress of 1774, Patrick
Henry, voicing the sentiments of his fellow-
Virginians, declared: "The distinctions between
New Yorkers, New Englanders and Pennsylvanians
are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an Amer-
ican." In 1784, Jefferson in his draft of an ordi-
nance for the government of the national domain
west of the Alleghanies, forbade the existence of
INTRODUCTION. xxiii
slavery after the year 1800, a provision which was
defeated, however, by the votes of the Southern
states. When Madison set out for the convention
of 1787, he carried with him an outline of the con-
stitution in which the word "National" was written
nineteen times with a capital N. To the same effect
was the inspiring example of Washington and
Marshall.
The reaction against these progressive views,
which is registered in the debates upon the Missouri
Compromise, Nullification, the Fugitive Slave Law
of 1850, the Dred Scott Decision, and Secession, coin-
cides with the sole supremacy of the cotton plant.
The industrial progress of the present day discloses
new forces at work in Southern life and a return to
the national outlook of the creative period in Amer-
ican history. Nationality in the present South is
not an innovation, but a revival of pristine loyalty
to the flag of our fathers. Thus there are layers of
experience in Southern history that show as distinct
cleavages as the strata of rocks in the Blue Eidge.
Each period in the long and varied course of the
South 's career must be studied separately and
judged according to the impelling factors in the
environment of that particular time. The evolution
of the South has been not without abrupt breaks,
owing chiefly to radical economic changes and cru-
cial racial conditions. It is therefore important for
a right understanding of the advancing forces in
this section to keep clearly distinct the content of
each period and the interplay of its vital forces.
Socially the ante-bellum South resembled a house
with three stories. Upon the basement floor stood
the Negro slaves. Upon the next floor lived the
plain white people, while upon the top story dwelt
the aristocratic planters. The peculiarity of the
xxiv INTRODUCTION.
social structure was that no stairway led from the
basement to the story above, while the passage from
the middle to the highest story was rendered pur-
posely difficult and infrequent. Power— educational,
social and political — rested with the slave-holding
planters, who moulded public opinion at home and
figured largely in the affairs of the nation. The
mass of plain white people were shut out from
opportunity, led dull lives, feeding upon unnourish-
ing sentiments, both as to the master class above
and the black slaves below. Scarcely anywhere have
appeared such contrasts in light and shadow socially
as in the old South. The charm of chivalry, the
mellowness of classic culture, the exaltation of
womanhood, a delicate sense of personal honor,
intense love of home, devotion to church, and withal
the refinements of feudal society characterized the
planters who dwelt side by side with millions of
unprivileged white folk, while African slavery
formed the background of the scene in which these
two sharply contrasted figures of lord and client
stood forth to view. Rich in human interest, in-
structive in political lore, picturesque in details of
life, romantic in the rapid shifts of prestige, sorrow
and heroic recovery, the South makes a powerful
appeal to the sympathies and thought of every stu-
dent who has the ability to detach himself from his
environment sufficiently to enter into the chastened
experiences of a great people wrestling with strange
and adverse conditions.
Thus variety is the prevailing characteristic of
the South, when correctly interpreted, whether you
consider its physical features, its history, or its
social structure. It is for this reason that the plan
of the present werk must commend itself to seekers
after truth regarding the social life of this section,
INTRODUCTION. xxv
in that specialists have been asked to treat the mani-
fold interests of the South in detail. These writers
represent a wide distribution geographically as well
as in range of historical studies. Hence, it is con-
fidently believed, a certain richness in variety as
well as accuracy in reproducing the essential factors
in Southern life, is to be found in the following
pages, the product of the labor of scores of men
representing individual and local angles of vision.
And yet unity characterizes the South, and it is
this fact that has impressed the world. This unity
in thought and feeling has become current in such
fixed phrases as "the solid South," which implies
an economic and social as well as a political solidar-
ity. The bonds of union have undoubtedly been
strong, bonds sympathetic growing out of common
experiences in struggle and suffering. There is a
community of feeling among all Southern people,
a type of local patriotism that has stood the test
of self-sacrifice and war. The South has been
welded by sorrow. The fact is that local attach-
ments seem to strike deeper rootage in this soil
than in some other portions of our country, due
perhaps to the warmth of our natures and to the
large part that sentiment plays in our lives, as evi-
denced by the glow of hero-worship. A Virginian
is loyal to his state, but he is scarcely less proud
of his native county, the name of which he pro-
nounces with reverence.
After all, territorial love is beautiful, and we are
fain to admire it in the loyalty of the ancient
Israelite to Jerusalem, of the Greek to Hellas, and
of the Latin to Rome. It should be no less sig-
nificant in the son of Georgia or South Carolina,
despite the common rejoicing in the process of
xxvi INTRODUCTION.
fusion incident to American democracy and the
assimilation of alien peoples.
We are rightly becoming increasingly responsive
to humanity, irrespective of race and region; yet
love of native land is a natural sentiment that
inspires the noblest energies in kindred virtues,
such as fondness for home, duty to the nation, and
zeal in religion. It was the existence of this unity
in Southern life that prompted the present work,
which has almost the same definiteness in subject
as a description of Tuscany or a history of Holland.
It must, however, be distinctly borne in mind that
this is not a sectional treatment. Localism is not at
variance with nationalism, any more than the indi-
viduality of the child mars the sympathy of the
family as a whole. American life is continental,
after the fashion of the vast extent of domain.
Monotony in art, literature and social custom may
result from the dead stretches in geography, the
general resemblance in habits, and the republican
uniformity in institutions. We should welcome
localism, as Josiah Boyce pleads, while at the same
time we frown upon sectionalism as at war with the
oneness of national life. Local self-government is
the rich heritage of Teutonic peoples ; and modern
democracy, which makes for cosmopolitanism by
reason of its genius for human brotherhood and
universal education, will do well to conserve this
original germ of freedom. The South has individu-
ality as a region of well-defined economic interests
and in the distinctive character of its people; and
this fact is to be regarded as a national asset, just
as the entrancing story of Scotland forms an inte-
gral part of Britain's history, or the finely-marked
provincialism of New England has been a creative
factor in the strenuous impulses and glowing ideals
IXTBODUCTION.
of America. Southern issues are, therefore, viewed
in the light of national destiny. This book has been
conceived in a national spirit.
The South is to-day a laboratory for the study of
sociological forces. The vital interest attaching to
such problems, which are here presented in all their
complexity, would alone necessitate and justify a
work of this kind. The South is tugging at the most
serious task in Christendom in trying to reconcile
the interests of two races diverse in color and char-
acter, living upon the same soil, and having held
strangely different relations to one another in the
dramatic periods of their conjoined experiences.
Such racial adjustment in society, industry and
politics the South is endeavoring to achieve through
the agency of the school. This region offers, conse-
quently, the vastest experiment in education that
has perhaps ever been attempted. The solution of
the South 's problem is primarily one of spirit. Can
we energize reason and conscience to do their per-
fect work? Spirit as a sovereign genius presides
over all the forces operative in this world-engaging
social process that seeks "a more excellent way"
of harmonizing the interests of different races
according to the rule of mutual helpfulness. This
issue is not the least of the reasons for believing
that a volume on the " Social Life of the South in
the Building of the Nation" has value both to this
and other lands, since the right relation of races is
a major task of the present world.
S. C. M.
PART I.
THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE
SOUTH.
CHAPTER I.
SOCIAL LIFE OF THE UPPER SOUTH.
Social Life Before War of Secession.
!)NE of the sharpest contrasts in the social
•history of the United States is presented
in the difference between the social life of
the Upper South previous to the War of
Secession and its social life since. Before
1860 the most characteristic society of the region
between the Patapsco and the Yadkin was in the
rural districts. Love of the country and a pas-
sion for rural pursuits and pastimes had been inher-
ited along with other traits of the English blood;
and these feelings and tastes had grown rather than
weakened with the progress of time. The planta-
tion was the immemorial seat of the family affec-
tions and the permanent centre of the family inter-
ests. All that promoted the refinement and culture
of the people, all that exercised the most powerful
influence in moulding their social spirit, all that
sustained and advanced their economic welfare,
sprang almost exclusively out of the rural commu-
nities; the leaders and exemplars of the social life
1
2 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
of the Upper South, with hardly an exception,
resided there ; and so with the principal representa-
tives of the great callings — law, medicine and the
church.
There were few towns; still fewer cities. The
towns that did exist were simply petty markets for
the staples of the surrounding counties, while the
cities were mere distributing centres for agricultural
and household manufactured supplies. North Caro-
lina possessed no city in the modern sense at all;
Virginia had in Eichmond a community of high
social and intellectual culture, but one which exer-
cised little influence on the social life of the state;
and this was also true of Baltimore in its relation
with the social life of southern Maryland, at least.
There was to all intents no disposition to desert
the country for the towns ; on the contrary, so soon
as a merchant or tradesman accumulated a fortune
in a city, his first desire was to purchase a landed
estate and slaves and to set himself up in a rural
home. The one pursuit which all preferred was
agriculture. In most parts of the Upper South
manufactures had no existence beyond the products
of the plantation loom, smithy, and saddler's shop.
The population of that region, from the highest to
the lowest rung of the ladder, was averse to urban
life and urban occupations. Every social gradation
was represented in the ranks of that population,
from the educated planter of ancient family and
large fortune, to the indigent and illiterate denizen
of the pine barrens and stony ridges. Social demar-
cations were distinctly drawn without generating
superciliousness or pretention on one side, or grudge
or envy on the other. The landowner, whose estate
spread over an area of thousands of acres, who
counted the roll of his slaves by the hundreds, and
the ramifications of whose kinships by blood or mar-
THE UPPER SOUTH. 3
riage ran far and wide through his native state,
stood at the head of his community's social life;
next to him came the landowner of narrower pos-
sessions and less conspicuous social connections ; and
at a still greater interval stood the obscure but
sturdy yeoman, who, too poor to own slaves, had to
till his thin soil with his own hands. From the first
two sections were recruited the principal statesmen,
lawyers, educators and clergymen of the Upper
South. However exhausted its fertility here and
there, that region nevertheless possessed, in every
one of its rural communities, a political, profes-
sional, or social leader enjoying justly the respect of
all for character and attainments alike.
Influence of Slavery.
The principal characteristics of this rural society
had come down from the colonial age ; the tendencies
of modern thought as reflected in current books and
newspapers, the more frequent communication with
the vast outside world made possible by the railway
and telegraph, had planted no seed of innovation in
the soil of that society. That it was as conservative
in 1860 as it had been in 1760, was due to the firm-
ness of the foundations on which the institution of
slavery rested, and to the far-spreading influence
which that institution, both directly and indirectly,
exercised. Which were the most powerful of these
influences ? First, the slave system, by discouraging
all immigration from the North and from Europe,
raised a barrier against the incoming of foreign
people, who, by their early education and associa-
tions, would have been disposed to undermine the
existing social and economic order. The world at
large had gradually acquired an ineradicable and
irrepressible antipathy to that order; and this feel-
ing had heen communicated to the persons who
4 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
would have settled in the South had its soil been
dedicated, like that of the West, to freedom. The
presence of slavery, by putting a damper on the
erection of new towns and impeding the growth of
old, fostered agriculture while it blighted manufac-
tures. For agriculture, there was an ample supply
of laborers in the slaves — there was no room for the
white immigrants there whatever — and as there
were few manufactures, since there were few cities
and towns, the room for employment in the factories
was too narrow to stimulate the introduction of
Northern or European workingmen to fill it. Sec-
ondly, slavery tended to disperse the population of
the Upper South over a broader area than the
number of its inhabitants really justified, the reason
of which lay in the rapid increase in the body of
slaves ; unless the landowner had possessed a great
extent of ground, he would have had no margin of
soil for the hands of these surplus laborers to till.
His disposition, under the influence of this economic
stress, as well as of the pride which the enjoyment
of such property pampered, was, by repeated pur-
chases, to push out the boundaries of his estate. The
result of the greater social independence which fol-
lowed was to confirm his loyalty to his inherited
points of view, and to further strengthen his pas-
sionate desire to preserve the existing social system
precisely as it stood.
Finally, slavery, by spreading out the population
more thinly, as well as by sustaining the prevailing
feeling of caste, tended to weaken whatever senti-
ment might have existed favorable to popular edu-
cation. For this reason, one of the principal means
which our time offers of modifying public opinion
failed to. come into play in any part of the Upper
South, except possibly in North Carolina, where the
spirit of the people was always more democratic
THE UPPER SOUTH. 5
than in the communities lying towards the North
or South.
Effect of the Destruction of Slavery.
The extinction of slavery in the consuming fur-
nace of war subverted the social system of the
Upper South by destroying the economical founda-
tion on which it rested, and from which it derived
its peculiar character. The economic influences
which emancipated negro labor set at work were
almost exactly the reverse of those which had sprung
from unemancipated ; the central fact of the new
order is that the drift towards the concentration of
the greater proportion of the area of soil in the
hands of a comparatively few proprietors, so con-
spicuous before 1860 throughout the Upper South,
has been substituted by a drift toward subdivision
among an ever augmenting host of small land-
owners. Now, this tendency toward subdivision
arose within a few years after the end of hostilities.
Naturally, at first, the large proprietors were not
disposed to sell, owing to inherited tastes and the
habits of a lifetime; and this disinclination was
encouraged by the absence of any very favorable
opportunity of investing elsewhere, for the towns
and cities were then as prostrate as the rural dis-
tricts. But debt, often descending from the period
before the war, compelled many owners of large
estates to part with their lands just as soon as pur-
chasers offered. The disorganization of labor, and
the necessity of paying wages, quickly brought many
proprietors into debt who had not been in debt
before.
The greatest impetus to subdivision, however, was
given by their heirs. In most instances, when a
large landowner died, his estate was sold by his sons.
These sons, either during his lifetime had settled in
6 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
some town or city, or, at his death, had decided that
a continued residence in the country was too harass-
ing from a domestic point of view, or too unprofit-
able from a business, or too dull and lonely from a
social, to justify the retention of the paternal estate.
The emigration of the younger members of families
occupying the most conspicuous social position in
the rural communities of the Upper South was
almost universal. Many, it is true, stopped perma-
nently in the nearest country town, but a very
respectable number settled in the principal cities of
their native state, while others removed as far afield
as the West and North. Here and there, the repre-
sentatives of some wealthy and influential family of
slavery times succeeded his father in the ancestral
home, but where one thus remained, a hundred
sought their fortunes in town, and where one ancient
residence still echoed to the voices of the large slave-
holder's descendants, a dozen were inhabited by
persons who would have made no pretense to even a
middle station in society had they lived before the
war. In too many instances the mansion, in spite of
its haunting memories of a distinguished family his-
tory, had been converted into a barn, or from neglect
sunk into a state of irredeemable ruin.
It was due largely to the influence of this class of
emigrants — the young men of the highest social posi-
tion— that the villages, towns, and cities of the Up-
per South soon began to grow at a rate never before
observed in their annals. Hither came all those
members of this class who were anxious to enjoy the
same social opportunities which their fathers had
enjoyed in the country before the abolition of slav-
ery ; hither, too, came all who were eager to win suc-
cess in business or the professions, and as they pros-
pered, they became increasingly immersed in their
new life, and more and more alienated from the old.
THE UPPEK SOUTH. 7
The accumulations which, before the war, they would
have invested in land and negroes, they now invested
in stocks, bonds, and city tenements, or in the dif-
ferent branches of trade, or of manufactures.
The impetus thus given to the expansion of the
towns was accelerated by the construction of new
railroads, and by the additions of Northern capital
attracted by the opportunities offered for in-
vestment in a comparatively undeveloped territory.
While North Carolina still possesses not a single
large city, its map is dotted with old towns whose
prosperity has been advanced by these combined in-
fluences, and with new, which have been created alto-
gether by these influences. In Virginia, the same
fact is observed — the cities have grown, towns have
become cities, and villages towns. Most of the sta-
tions along the several lines of railway are now small
trading or manufacturing centres.
While the families which gave the country life of
the Upper South under the old system so much dis-
tinction were deserting their ancestral homes and
neighborhoods, the men and women who belonged to
a lower position in society remained citizens of the
communities in which their people before them had
resided perhaps for generations. Formerly, when a
large proprietor was seeking to push out the bound-
aries of his estate, he purchased the little home-
steads of the yeomen who were seated about him.
These yeomen then, in most cases, emigrated either
to the West or to the Southwest. Throughout the
Upper South one can often still trace in the thick
woods the almost obliterated marks of where these
yeomen formerly lived ; the scattered stones of the
fallen chimney, the depression in the earth where the
foundation for the cabin had been dug, the sink in-
dicating the site of an ancient grave — such are a few
memorials of the past system. But the whirligig of
8 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
time has brought in a radical change. Under the
present regime, it is not the large proprietor who is
buying the estates of the yeomen, but the yeomen
who are buying the estate of the large proprietor ; it
is his ancestral home, not the yeoman's, which is fall-
ing to decay and ruin. Practically there is now no
emigration of small landowners from the Upper
South simply because the opportunities for improv-
ing their fortunes by acquiring the most fertile soil
are no longer closed to them by the barriers former-
ly raised by the presence of a wealthier class.
If any one whose recollections go back to the per-
iod of slavery wishes to see how far the social revolu-
tion in the Upper South has reached, let him mingle
with the people in the rural churches or at the county
seats; let him attend such a popular occasion as a
political barbecue or a public meeting for the pro-
motion of some local interest. Not often will fall on
his ear there names famous in the social or political
past of that region of country; for the bearers of
these names he must inquire among the congrega-
tions of the city and town churches, in the halls of
the city clubs, or in the lecture rooms of colleges and
schools.
Present Social Life of the City.
Under the regime of slavery, the social life of the
country dominated the social life of the town. It is
now the reverse — the social life of the town com-
pletely overshadows the social life of the country.
Under the new system, the only substitute for the
refined and cultivated society which formerly exist-
ed in all the older communities of the Upper South is
to be observed in the centres of urban population.
But the flavor of that old social life has not been
transmitted to the new because of the influences of
an altered environment. The simplicity, heartiness,
THE UPPER SOUTH. 9
and liberality of the social spirit of those times,
(when hospitality, made easy by troops of carefully
trained slaves, and an inexhaustible profusion of
supplies, was looked upon as a sacred duty, and
when family ties were recognized to a remote degree
of consanguinity) — has been greatly diminished by
constant intercourse with the world at large, by a
revolution in ideas and pursuits, and by the strain of
a more strenuous existence.
There was in that old society practically no osten-
tation, no pretension, no imitation of alien habits
and customs. It had a highly developed character
of its own, which was only rendered possible by the
comparative isolation of the country life of that day.
Social rules, standards, and points of view inherited
from a remote period, customs descending from a
distant ancestry, underwent little change because the
life remained unruffled by the social currents of
Europe and the North. The present social life of the
Upper South is far more obedient to the dictates of
the world at large ; far more sensitive to the altering
fashions — intellectual and moral — of that world;
far more inclined to be docile, ductile, responsive,
and imitative. It follows that the highest social life
of that region — as represented in its cities today — is
more pretentious, more ostentatious.
This is also because the social competition is now
more acute. During the existence of slavery, new
families were not constantly rising to prominence,
since the chance of improving private fortunes was
then narrow in the country owing to the absence of
trade and commerce. Agriculture, which the bulk of
the people followed, failed to offer any quick means
of accumulating a great estate. In the modern cities
of the Upper South, on the other hand, extraordi-
nary capacity for business finds in the bank, count-
ing room, and factory, a certain field in which to
10 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
gather up money ; and in a commercial community, it
is the possessor of this capacity who is most apt to
be held up to the admiration of all as the man who
has won the highest success in life. The founders of
large fortunes and their immediate families are nat-
urally socially ambitious, and this disposition has its
first expression in more or less display ; a powerful
tone is thus set by a class which was practically un-
known in the rural society of the Upper South in for-
mer times. But while the members of this class
have diminished the simplicity, and, perhaps, the re-
finement, of the present highest social life of that
region, the spirit which they have spread abroad
has, in other ways, made that social life more varied,
more alert, and much less provincial. Society has
become a race open to all aspirants who combine so-
cial energy and ambition with the necessary fortune.
There are no barriers to such qualities backed by
such advantages. Ancestry counts for much less
than formerly unless the person claiming a distin-
guished descent can show other substantial creden-
tials to consideration.
Under the past regime, as we have already pointed
out, when the resident of the city succeeded in accu-
mulating a fortune, he was always inclined to invest
the greater part of it in a country estate and slaves ;
and on retiring from trade, he withdrew permanent-
ly to this new home. Under the present regime,
should a rural estate be purchased by a wealthy
banker, merchant or manufacturer, it would be only
for use and enjoyment during the prevalence of the
heated season. It is either for temporary diversion
only, or for the preservation of his family's health
during the most trying months of the year. The
country is no longer recruited from the city except
during this very brief period.
THE UPPER SOUTH. 11
Present Social Life of the Country.
It is not strange that it should not be. The social
life of the rural districts throughout the year is sim-
ply the social life of the small landowners. As a rule,
the yeomen cultivate their ground with their own
hands ; they have no assistance either in their fields,
or in their homes, beyond what is furnished by the
members of their own families, and, in consequence,
they have to pay out little money except for the few
manufactured supplies which they need. How stead-
ily they are accumulating is proven, not only by the
rapid subdivision of lands now in progress, but also
by the increase in the number of local banks ; there is
not a small town, hardly a village, in the Upper
South, which does not contain one or more institu-
tions of this kind supported by the deposits of the
farmers and planters in the surrounding country. As
this rural population acquires property, they are
learning to value more the advantages which the
possession of means assures — there is a steady im-
provement in the character of their homes, of their
vehicles, and of their teams.
They have also a growing sense of the importance
of education. The public school system has stimu-
lated their desire for knowledge — one of the most
significant and promising aspects of the condition of
the rural communities to-day is the number of news-
papers and periodicals to which the people subscribe,
a disposition strongly encouraged by the conveni-
ence of the rural free delivery. The remarkable in-
crease in the attendance of students in the colleges
and higher schools of the Upper South is largely due
to this advance in the thrift of the small landowners,
and to their more ardent appreciation of the value of
education. Before the war, this class of Southern
citizens derived their only political education, as a
12 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
rule, from speakers on the hustings. The political
knowledge they now have has been acquired more
frequently by reading newspapers than by listening
to public orators, however well informed.
With the diversification of agriculture, the small
landowners are becoming better versed in the most
productive methods of farming; and their progress
in this respect is further hastened by the instruc-
tions of farmers' institutes, by the practical work of
the agricultural colleges and experiment stations,
and by the activity of every kind of association or-
ganized for protecting and fostering their interests.
Their social condition is rising with the improvement
in their pecuniary condition. There is now far less
of the benumbing and narrowing personal isolation
of former times, owing to the growth of population
and the expanding facilities for traveling. The small
towns are now so numerous that every landowner
has the opportunity of breaking the monotonous reg-
ularity of his life by frequent visits to a larger com-
munity than that represented in his own rural neigh-
borhood. A general social equality prevails through-
out the country districts, and the people there are
more harmonious, more homogeneous, because there
are no substantial differences in their social station ;
the differences that do exist are those created by in-
dividual character ; there are practically none due to
mere birth, and few due to diversities of fortune.
Social Identification With the North.
From this brief account it will be seen that the
social life of the Upper South now rests upon the
same general foundation as the social life of the
Northern and Western states; it is developing
unmistakably along the same well defined lines of
character. As yet there are not in that region the
THE UPPER SOUTH. 13
same number of large cities as those states can
show; nor the same number of towns and villages;
nor as yet does its rural population offer the same
degree of diversity ; but the nuclei of the same social
conditions, both in town and country, exist every-
where from one end of the Upper South to the other.
So far, this tendency towards absolute identification
with the social life of the North has been checked
by the fact that the population is still perfectly
homogeneous. The proportion of foreign-born citi-
zens in the urban centers is very small ; while the
proportion in the rural districts is smaller still. In
neither is it of any social importance as yet. Prac-
tically the entire population is sprung from the orig-
inal settlers, and this population has those virtues
of conservatism and stability which arise from a
people's long association with the same soil. But
it is only a question of time when the waves of immi-
gration will be rolling more and more towards the
states of the Upper South. This is already fore-
shadowed in their expanding prosperity. Naturally,
the greater number of the newcomers will find homes
in the cities, for there the new conditions are bring-
ing about an extraordinary diversity of production,
which must widen the opportunities for employ-
ment and increase the demand for labor. Gradually
the cheap lands, the mild climate, the enlarged facil-
ities for transportation, and the improvements of
the public school system, will draw to the rural dis-
tricts of this region an ever augmenting number of
aliens ; under the influence of whose accession to the
ranks of the present homogeneous urban and rural
population, the tendency towards identification with
the social life of the North will be very much
strengthened, until in the end it will be difficult to
discover any real difference between the two, either
from a social or an economic point of view.
14 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
Influence of the Negro Population.
How far will the presence of the black population
modify the social development of the Upper South?
There are two facts that foreshadow a decline in
such influence as the negroes are now exercising over
that development — first, they are not increasing as
rapidly proportionately as the whites ; and secondly,
both as domestic servants and as field laborers, they
are, in the mass, growing more inefficient and more
untrustworthy. One of the principal reasons why
they are falling relatively so much behind the white
population, numerically, is that so many are emi-
grating to the Northern and Western communities —
they do this because they are restless by nature;
because they obtain there higher wages ; and because
there they are assured of certain social and political
advantages which they can never acquire in the
Southern states. The tendency towards emigration
is sure to increase in the future until, in the Upper
South at least, the growth of the black population
will gradually come to a standstill. This was sub-
stantially so in Virginia between 1890 and 1900,
when the addition to that population was only twen-
ty-five thousand. The next census will reveal an
even greater falling off. But the spirit of emigra-
tion now animating the negroes is not confined to a
disposition to move northward and westward — there
is a steady drift from the rural districts to the
cities and towns of the Upper South itself.
The negro is not sharing equally in the subdivision
of the soil — not only because the members of the
new generation are less industrious, less skilful, and
less persistent than were the members of the previ-
ous one, but the most intelligent and enterprising
individuals seek the towns in pursuit of more profit-
able employment and a more varied society. Arguing
from the influences now at work, it is within the
THE UPPER SOUTH. 15
range of probability that the black population of the
cities, towns, and villages of the Upper South will,
in time, greatly outnumber that of the rural dis-
tricts. But the forces destructive of the race are
much more actively in operation in the urban centers
than in the country; the hygienic conditions there
are far less favorable to their increase. Competi-
tion in domestic service, and in the rough tasks of
the streets, already beginning, will only grow fiercer
as time advances. The survival of the negroes in
large numbers will, in the Upper South, as else-
where, ultimately depend upon the question whether
they have the moral qualities to hold their own as
servants and laborers against the relentless rivalry
of white competitors, who are augmenting not only
through the birth rate in each community, but also
by additions through emigration from other parts
of the United States and from Europe.
Already the disposition of the negroes of the
Upper South is to remain closely within their own
social sphere — they have their separate schools,
separate churches, and separate organizations of
other kinds. They come in contact with the whites
only in the capacity of servants and laborers. There
are no points of real social contact. The danger of
amalgamation is less today than it was forty years
ago, when the intimacy encouraged by slavery had
not passed away with the generation of either color
born under that institution. Even at this early stage
of observation all indications foreshadow a gradual
diminution in the impression which the African race
is making on the social life of the white inhabitants
of the Upper South. That social life is being
remoulded by influences which would have sprung
up had not a single negro been left in that entire
region after the fall of the Confederacy ; and these
influences, in working out their ultimate effects, are
16 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
too powerful to be seriously retarded by the pres-
ence of the blacks, steadily declining, as they are
doing, in social and economic importance through
the force of their own unfortunate qualities.
PHILIP ALEXANDER BRUCE,
Author of The Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth
Century.
CHAPTER II.
THE SOCIAL LIFE IN THE LOWER SOUTH.
Territorial Basis for the Lower South.
T a cursory glance, one might say that there
was no appreciable difference between the
social life of the Upper and Lower South.
Yet, a marshaling of facts and a proper
estimate of the spirit of things will undoubtedly
show that those tendencies toward democratization
which the South has manifested since the reconstruc-
tion period — or more specifically since 1870 — were
first manifest in the Lower South — and, strange to
say — before the war.
Throughout the colonial years, while it is a fact
that territorial boundaries were drawn, they were
well nigh limitless in their western sweep, stopped
only by conflict with other nationalities. Virginia
was practically the South, while the Carolinas,
Georgia and Florida only vaguely hinted at the
future outlines of what we now term the Lower
South.
The territorial basis for this section has been
subject to diverse foreign influences, which have left
THE LOWER SOUTH. 17
traces of their presence in the nomenclature of
streets and cities, in the landmarks of thoroughfare
and mansion, in the retention of family name though
the flavor be gone therefrom, and, in a few instances,
—most notably the Creole traditions of New
Orleans — in a distinct civilization, isolated in tem-
perament and national feeling, even as the Spaniard
was isolated in California, when the Gringo first put
in an appearance.
We may block off the territory of the Lower
South, in the historical period of exploration, by
placing the French in South Carolina, in Florida, in
Texas, in Mississippi, and above all in Louisiana;
by noting the defined marks left by the Spanish in
Florida; and by crediting the English with the
remaining colonization, even to a dominant hand in
the establishment of South Carolina. The traditions
of New Orleans and Mobile and Charleston, and
those of St. Augustine, attest a certain foreign influ-
ence, which, together with the climate, and the pecu-
liar exactions of an enforced civilization, might, in
a way, account for what is identified as Southern
temperament.
The carving out of the Lower South is concerned
with the acquirement of the Louisiana territory at a
time when every effort was being made to establish
a French empire on American soil ; it has to do with
the disputes over the Florida boundaries, which,
when once settled, resulted in the relinquishing of a
considerable part of the territorial claims of Georgia
and Carolina in order to make way for future South-
ern states.
In other words, the Lower South, territorially, was
in process of transformation all the while other
sections were becoming better established and their
resources better defined.
Vol. 10—2
18 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
An Inherited Social System.
Socially, the Lower South inherited most of its
customs and institutions from Virginia, which, be-
sides being the mother of Presidents, was likewise
the mother of states. Out of her strength came the
strength of the Middle West; from the unwisdom,
however much we bear in mind the undoubted charm,
of her aristocratic class, which peopled the tidewater
region, came the necessity for migration — into
North Carolina, into the mountains, and thence,
through varied channels, into the Lower South. And
those who thus went were not of the middle class,
such as peopled New England ; they were not of the
thrifty class, but had inherited much of the wasteful
attitude toward the soil which the wealthier class
were showing, and which had pushed them, the
poorer rank, into sand and barren, and had prompted
them to exert their pioneer spirit, which was their
Anglo-Saxon inheritance.
Land hunger, therefore, was one of the prime
forces that carried streams of English emigrants
over the Appalachian range, through Kentucky,
thence into the Mississippi Valley, and down into
Texas. The richness of the natural soil invited
extravagance on a large scale, and, whereas the
small farmer of the North learned, through neces-
sity, to conserve the strength of his land by alter-
nating crops, the plantation of the South knew prac-
tically but one product, keeping down the cultivation
of other resources to the level of bare demand.
These emigrant classes brought with them vir-
tually the same social system, with this in their
favor, that, whereas the relative grades of society
were primarily unchangeable, the highest of them
was one step nearer the soil and one degree less
inclined to scout the suggestion that men of ability
THE LOWER SOUTH. 19
might rise from the ranks to represent them in the
struggle that lay ahead.
A new adjustment was thus to be effected; the
statesman of the past, as represented by Washing-
ton, and by Jefferson who distinctly disapproved of
slavery, was the constructive genius intent upon
founding a nation; the statesman now to arise was
one whose view extended hardly further than the
agricultural system which was attached to him when
he reached the Black Belt, which was rapidly
increased by the easy response of nature, and which
was still further strengthened by the facility of the
cotton gin, invented while Eli Whitney was visiting
Savannah.
Physical advantages, therefore, encouraged even
larger holdings than were prevalent in Virginia,
which meant that the Black Belt, the rich soil, was
concentrated in fewer hands than marked a similar
class in the Upper South, and encouraged, even more
than in Virginia, the wide dispersion of population.
The small farmer took up the less fertile, the sandier
region, while the poor white was pushed into the
pine barrens.
Protestantism in Virginia meant the Episcopal
Church; but in the Lower South, while religious
life was just as conservative, it was more largely
made up of Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians.
In every direction, the Southern community being
conservative, there was small room for the entrance
of any trace of Universalism, Unitarianism, or of
free thought, which, appearing in New England, did
quite as much, if not more, than abolitionism, to
awaken consciences to the moral significance of
slavery.
From 1820 until the war the history of the United
States not only has to do with the diversity of inter-
20 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
ests which marked North and South, but also with
the expansion of territory, and the admission of
states, which threatened each time to upset what-
ever limited equilibrium might exist between two
sections, one of which was donainantly industrial,
and the other of which was pledged, through time
and circumstances, to agriculture. The Battle of
New Orleans, fought behind a bulwark of cotton,
the Creek War in Alabama, the seizure of West
Florida by a governor of the territory of Louisiana,
the annexation of Texas, which brought the United
States into conflict with Mexico, and which trained
Southern men under Taylor and Scott — men who
were later to be the leaders of the Confederate
armies — the carving out of the territorial extent of
the Lower South involved all this.
The Southern people were content to have terri-
torial expansion just as long as it strengthened their
economic system; they even expressed a desire for
Cuba. The development of sectionalism was bound
to arise where, as in the South, the limitation of
agriculture to virtually one product — cotton — de-
manded protection. This was the cause of the rise
of the Lower South; the people had to have a domi-
nant force in the Senate at Washington; otherwise
their system would be in jeopardy.
The Rise of the Lower South.
The history of the Lower South until the war was,
therefore, one entirely centered in the protection of
its social system, in which the question of slavery
was at first only one of the important details among
many others. The character of the people was
moulded according to the demands and privileges
of their patriarchal life; their political and economic
outlook was governed by a desire to overcome any
THE LOWER SOUTH. 21
restriction that might affect their institution. The
Southerner was sensitive to criticism because he
found himself pledged to a system which required
him to be always on the defensive.
The Lower South rose on the tide of sectional dis-
crimination, and, curiously enough, this separation
began during a period known as the "Era of Good
Feeling." The desire for internal improvements,
and the opposition of the South to such; the impo-
sition of tariffs and the protests of Southern states-
men that the burden of taxation fell heaviest upon
their section, with the least benefit accruing there-
from; the question of the further territorial exten-
sion of slavery — these were the points that irri-
tated the Southern people and made them seek the
ascendency in Washington.
The sparseness of population in the South encour-
aged an isolation that made for aloofness of methods
on one hand, and for a characteristic individualism
on the other. The patriarchal life developed a cer-
tain charm of manner, a certain prodigal hospitality
that made a Southern home distinctive. When the
Southern planter resorted to Charleston or to New
Orleans for his annual combination of business and
pleasure, he managed to stock himself with all the
metropolitan enjoyment that the time and place
could afford. That was his sole contact with the
cosmopolitan world. New England life concentrated
around the meeting house and the town hall; even
small villages were not so far distant from larger
communities that they felt themselves cut aloof from
the world. But the Southern planter, aristocratic
in his feelings rather than so in his purse, would
calculate to meet his neighbor only when their cross
roads met. Here perhaps might be erected a church,
not so many miles away from the farm houses that
22 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
the families could not pilgrimage to service on
Sundays.
The county town was characteristic of the Lower
South, and the oratory for which the Southerner
was famous found an outlet during court week. The
aristocracy or gentry were marked by social preju-
dices which were further increased by the fact that
they were the ruling class. The yeomanry, who felt
themselves to a degree discriminated against by
those above them, had developed within them a pride
which discouraged any desire to labor, for fear that
they might, more often than was good for their
social position, be identified with the slaves. The
pride of the average Southerner was one reason for
the Southerner's indolence. When, finally, he
became aware that agriculture alone would never
make the South retain her balance of power in the
government, he tried to engraft upon one form of
life the instruments of another; at first suspicious
of all improvements, and holding fast to the old
ways, he found himself suddenly aware of the neces-
sity for that which would encourage greater
efficiency in work. But he found that efficiency by
the use of machinery meant a more skilled laboring
class, and slavery was against a high-wage standard.
The Cotton Kingdom
Cotton was king in the Lower South ; the market-
place meant the gathering of cotton wagons, and the
bulwarks of cotton bales around the public square
ready for transportation. The white boll far sur-
passed sugar and tobacco in its importance ; all other
commodities steadily declined, though they were far
from ignored. The soil was valued, not for its
future possibilities, but for its immediate results.
As one authority said: "Soil that would yield 1,800
THE LOWER SOUTH. 23
pounds of cotton to each hand was preferable to
that yielding only 1,200 pounds." The planter did
not stop to think that he might alternate crops;
whatever land on his plantation he found not re-
sponsive to the one product, he left uncultivated,
not reckoning that it need not lie fallow in other
directions.
But, in spite of these defects, which were not so
much defects in the people as in the system, South-
erners realized their limitations, although they
refused to allow outsiders to tell them wherein those
limitations lay. The wastefulness of plantation life
did not help in any way to encourage the thriftiness
of the small farmer.
England and the North and the Northwest looked
to the South for raw material upon which their
manufactures depended. The South looked to Eng-
land as much as to the North for her imports. The
Yankee spirit was the commercial spirit, regarded
by the Southerner as a sort of vulgarity with which
he, as a gentleman, could not identify himself. The
relation was very much as it exists to-day between
the English gentry and their middle class trades
people. Everything pointed to the discouragement
of an industrial system; it required skilled labor,
and slavery could not support that idea ; it demanded
the patronage of a very immediate public, and
Southern wants were not so urgent; it finally
depended upon capital being drawn to it, and money
was mostly invested in the North.
Southern industrial activity, however, began in
the direction of cotton factories in Georgia as early
as 1811. When the war came and the Southerners
were thrown upon their own resources, physical
want was not due to the fact that the South was
utterly devoid of any means of manufacturing neces-
24 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
sities for the Confederate armies, but that there were
not sufficient means to turn out an adequate supply
for the large demand that needed immediate atten-
tion. Notwithstanding, the foundations of the vig-
orous industrial activity which now marks the Lower
South began more than a decade before the final
struggle of the Old Regime. Around the cotton-mill
of Prattsville was gathered a nucleus for a settle-
ment, with its wooden churches and its school houses.
Many were the centres of like character. The iron
of Alabama and Tennessee was a profitable industry,
and later became the chief reason for the increase
of certain cities, such as Birmingham, in population
and in material prosperity. Southern initiative pre-
ceded Northern capital.
Indeed, were one to consider carefully the state
of Alabama, for example, the territorial division
could easily indicate three distinct changes that
typify life in the Lower South. These divisions are
represented by Mobile, as still retaining some of the
old foreign flavor; by Montgomery, as breaking
gradually from a traditional life, and as being keenly
alive to the progressive movement ; and by Birming-
ham, a product of the New South — as influenced by
Northern capital.
In regard to trade and commerce, the Lower South
was anxious to rise above the exactions of an agri-
cultural system. She could boast of her ports at
New Orleans, Charleston and Savannah, but not for
long, inasmuch as the freer exigencies of trade in
New York and Boston, and even Baltimore, together
with the financial conditions which made it easier for
the North to obtain notes of credit, soon took away
from the prestige of Southern centres.
Notwithstanding, the Southern politician and the
Southern planter realized the necessity for those
THE LOWER SOUTH. 25
means which would facilitate their trade and com-
merce, inasmuch as population every year was
spreading out over a wider area. It was in the South
that the railroad first received its greatest impetus,
and for two decades after 1830, railroad conventions
were held, systems were planned, and the states,
even the cities and individuals, pledged capital for
their furtherance. This was internal improvement
of a different character from that offered by a cen-
tralized government; it was strictly in accordance
with what was later to be called " states rights."
Atlanta grew out of and flourished upon this move-
ment.
But, despite the fact that in the South the tele-
graph was introduced at an early date, and the move
was made to communicate directly with foreign
markets from Southern ports, the balance of trade
was found in the North. Not only was the South 's
credit hampered in many directions; circumstances
also led to governmental appropriations being dis-
tributed in larger quantities through the North ; and
it is not so much the appropriation which is a ben-
efit, as the means behind this, to increase the value
of the appropriation after it is given. The South
did not have the means.
Agriculture and the Negro.
In every direction, therefore, industrially and
commercially, agriculture and the negro sat heavily
upon the progress of the South. They affected the
educational problem; they permeated the literature
which was produced; they entered the very fibre of
Southern life. Yet underneath that which was
changing slowly but surely through a process of
individual initiative on the part of the South her-
self— when abolitionism fanned the warmth into a
26 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
flame — lay all the elements of democratization
which are now so evident throughout the whole of
the Lower South.
In a certain sense, the social prejudice noted by
William Gilmore Simms, when he first tried to enter
Charleston circles, is one distinctive phase of early
life in the Lower South; in another sense, South
Carolina is an extreme case and not representative
of the whole South. For example, the nullification
policy, which changed Calhoun from a Union
believer into an advocate of sectional legislation,
while enthusiastically proclaimed in South Carolina,
was not sanctioned by the rest of the Lower South.
The aristocracy, with an education largely Euro-
pean, with a taste predominantly classical, and a
style of Addisonian expression, was pledged to an
old world standard. Here Simms was confronted by
what, unfortunately, was the chief characteristic of
all Southern ante-bellum life, a life which, as Pro-
fessor Trent remarks, "choked all thought and
investigation that did not tend to conserve existing
institutions and opinions, a life that rendered origi-
nality scarcely possible except under the guise of
eccentricity. ' '
Educational progress throughout the South was
largely influenced by the social life. At first the
son was sent away for his college education, either
abroad or to the North ; yet the history of Southern
education shows that higher instruction received
first attention. Denominational institutions were
also widely established, and this fact probably did
much to retard any movement toward the democrati-
zation of learning, though it did much to help the
South.
Nevertheless, we must not lose sight of the fact
that the states of the Lower South have never been
THE LOWER SOUTH. 27
callous to the educational needs of their people.
Some critics are prone to-day to accentuate the out-
side support received by the South in her fight
against illiteracy, without fully realizing the sacri-
fice for betterment made within the South herself.
Land concessions were granted by many of the
states for educational endowment, and, unfortu-
nately, this encouraged the establishment of too
many colleges in proportion to the number of stu-
dents. Higher education drew its teaching corps
either from the North or from abroad ; the first fac-
ulty of the University of Virginia is indicative of
the difficulty confronting a Southern centre in its
selection of a professional body.
Despite the fact that intermediate schools were
established, and, in isolated instances, manual train-
ing and instruction in agriculture were attempted,
the condition of illiteracy in the South soon began
to have a demoralizing effect. The general narrow-
ness of the mental vision did much to weaken mental
initiative ; besides which, an agricultural life did not
quicken the Southern mind or push it into newer
fields. The intellectual aloofness of the South dis-
quieted many of her sons ; note particularly the case
of Sidney Lanier, educated in Oglethorpe Univer-
sity, one of the typical denominational institutions
of Georgia, where he was brought in contact with
types of the old world scholar, who, tempered by
religious zeal, were more nearly in sympathy with
the conflict at that moment confronting English
thought and which embraced the initial struggle be-
tween science and religion. Lanier was largely influ-
enced by Professor James Woodrow, of the depart-
ment of science, who eventually was called before
the Southern Presbyterian Church to answer charges
of a religious nature.
2S THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
Intellectual Limitations.
The educational institutions before the war lacked
the element of democratization; the libraries were
either restricted or else were owned by the aristo-
cratic families, whose conservatism and tradition
usually limited the matter of selection. The news-
papers reflected the general interest of the dominant
class in relation to the consuming topics of the day ;
politics were usually behind the policy, and the edi-
tor was more interested in party principles than he
was in the gathering of general news. Since that
was the case, and since, at the same time, the editor
was obliged to consider the sensitiveness of his
public toward the question of slavery, the paper
could adopt no far-reaching view, though oftentimes
it assumed a threatening tone.
The business of journalism flourishes when
brought in contact with the big stream of life ; a
rural population was much more eager to listen;
hence, oratory might be regarded as an obstacle in
the way of Southern intellectual life ; in many cases
oratory and village gossip were the only ways by
which a countryman could ever hope to come in
touch with the world's news.
While education in the South was adequate along
certain lines, society was too marked by class dis-
tinction to consider the benefits of the whole com-
munity. The common school progressed slowly;
even in the North, the public utility idea has scarcely
had a full generation to overcome, among a certain
class, the prejudice against the general privileges of
the public school and the public library. No doubt,
the statement was not wholly true that too often
education for the poor meant poor education. But
it was largely true.
Bestiveness was continually shown among South-
THE LOWEK SOUTH. 29
erners regarding the inadequacy of common school
instruction. Ingle mentions an attempt made in
South Carolina to establish an ambulatory school,
with the same object in view as that of the minis-
terial circuit rider — to overcome the difficulties of
isolation; but, as the same authority has pointed
out, the result would have been an ' ' elementary edu-
cation as thin as the population." Then, as to the
character of the education received, the Southerners
became so sensitive that a demand was necessarily
developed for textbooks written from the Southern
standpoint. In this respect, the people were as zeal-
ous as the early Tractarians who used to prepare
literature for children.
Such was the status of education, generally;
although the common school system is rapidly devel-
oping in the South, one finds even now isolated cases
where either the child is sent North, or else receives
private instruction at home. But, despite all these
drawbacks, the type of Southern inhabitant of the
poor class was none the less possessor of a certain
strength of character which was not dependent upon
the acquirement of education, however much it
might have been added to in value thereby. To quote
Ingle further : ' ' With all the allowances for the dif-
ferences between the sections, for their advantages
and disadvantages, the fact remains that the com-
mon school system of the North did not retard the
growth of pauperism and crime, as may have been
expected, and that these menaces of civilization were
not disproportionately enhanced by the illiteracy in
the South. "
Slave Labor.
The agricultural life of the South was dependent
upon slave labor, and this in turn demanded the
protective watchfulness of the politician. After the
30 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
Federal party had accomplished its chief purpose of
establishing a government, it passed its usefulness,
for no party can change on the surface, to meet new
conditions, but must revolutionize itself to the very
core. As yet, the "Southern Question" had not
crystallized into an issue: that is why one finds, in
ante-bellum political history, so many parties which
flourished on details in principles, rather than on
the principles themselves. But when the Southern
Question became dominant, the Whig and the Demo-
crat in the South came together in solid agreement.
The slave made his impress upon the life of the
Lower South. When the emigrant brought his prop-
erty from Virginia, the negro was brought also; in
fact, the value of the slave in the Upper South was
dependent upon his demand in the Lower South.
Virginia was thus materially affected. There is an
outside view of the slave question that does injustice
to the South at large. Statistics have never reached
the spirit of a civilization, however near they may
have approached the fact. Travelers through the
Southern states during the existence of slavery only
half saw the true conditions. The Southerner treated
his slave with more leniency than the Northerner
did the free black man. There may have been a
moral antipathy to slavery in New England, but
there was also a physical antipathy which in the
South was necessarily of a different order and not
so keen.
Slavery, as an institution, was wrong ; many were
the Southerners who believed this, but a form of
life is not suddenly swept away; slavery was sud-
denly abolished in the South and reconstruction
methods show the dangers which followed in conse-
quence. That the South recovered at all is due quite
as much to the stability of Southern character,
THE LOWER SOUTH. 31
trained, developed and strengthened by the Old
Regime, as to the popular belief that by removing
slavery, an incubus was being lifted from the move-
ment toward progress in the Southern states. For
as Mr. Edgar Gardner Murphy so aptly says, civil
conflict did not eliminate the negro, and only added
to the moral responsibility toward the black man,
which the South, and especially the Lower South,
has never thought of shirking.
For, truly, what is known as the Southern Ques-
tion to-day, concerns the negro even more than it
did before the war. Whatever evil was involved in
slavery, the slave's position was at least defined;
the moral wrong was quite as much against the
white man as against the black, for it is weakening
to human nature to encourage the channels of least
resistance toward despotism. That the Southerner
was not, in general, despotic, was a surprising fact
which was due to his strength of character, a fact
which was a virtue. The black man is still of an
alien race, living in a community which is moving
towards democracy. What part shall he play in a
social democracy?
The Lower South understood the black man as
slave, and understands him as a citizen. The whole
of ante-bellum society encouraged the middle-man
system on the plantations, and the faults of the
overseer often obscured the virtues of the master.
Plantation life under slavery may have had its
evils — in rare instances the overworking of the
"hand," the immoral breeding of the slave, and
still again the very untypical cruelty as dwelt upon
in Uncle Tom's Cabin. But, as a general rule, the
slave quarters had their good, their wholesome qual-
ities; the slaves were attended to physically, and
one might almost say that the Southerner took an
32 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
anomalous position in the effort to make the negro
a good Christian, however much he remained a slave.
The slave, though in a majority of cases he grew
up in ignorance, was none the less not cut aloof
from a certain intellectual benefit to be derived from
his personal contact with the whites who owned him.
Some of them did learn to read slightly, and the
house servants especially were made to benefit by
the kindly attention and concern of the different
members of the household. The patriarchal atti-
tude of the white man in some cases kept the negro
in straight paths; certainly the agricultural system
afforded him a manual education which he did not
obtain, even when emancipation set him free, until
many years after reconstruction. To-day, Tuskee-
gee and Booker Washington are emphasizing that,
in general, education for the negro is disastrous
unless it be the right kind of education.
But economic laws were tremendously handi-
capped by the presence of the slave. Such argu-
ments as Simms continually set forth as to the ben-
efits accruing from slavery are now seen to be simply
a natural outcome of environment and education
reacting upon the individual. At the time of the
war, there was, in the South, a growing antipathy
to slavery, but a dilemma underlying the feeling lay
in the fact that its removal meant the collapse of a
whole system.
The Literary Isolation.
It is readily seen that politically, economically
and psychologically, the Southern people were in
themselves distinctive. Strange indeed would it
have been, if, when they came to express themselves,
their written word had not reflected the social life
which prompted it. This is the chief value of South-
THE LOWER SOUTH. 33
ern literature, per se, that it is the peculiar expres-
sion of a very distinctive social life. In the colonial
period, whatever writing was done in Virginia, was
naught but the transplanted creations of the immi-
grant English mind. But from Simms onward, this
characteristic tendency of a section is to be noted.
Undoubtedly, letters throve more fully above the
Mason and Dixon line. Simms went North, Lanier
founded his reputation North; men such as these
made authorship a profession, and had to bring
themselves in touch with the outside world. It is a
wonder that Southern literature flourished at all,
considering the absence of literary centres, or rather
one should say, the absence of invigorating contact
with a stream of alert intellects, thinking intensely
along lines different from the formal manner. The
South at first did not welcome the advent of new
ideas.
The country gentleman read his farm papers,
bought his books from England, failed to support
the numberless mushroom periodicals that survived
oblivion, in some cases, simply because they involve
interesting personalities in the making. Through-
out the North, there was a considerable desire to
adopt a fair-minded attitude toward the Southern
writer. Sparse population was not conducive to the
flourishing of magazines in the South, nor to the
wide encouragement of letters; in fact, in few
instances was writing any more than a pastime, an
accomplishment. The majority of Southern poets,
large numbers of whom were imitative, flourished
only on local newspaper fame. Let those who would
test the social forces in Southern literature read
Joseph G. Baldwin's Flush Times in Alabama and
Party Leaders, A. B. Longstreet's Georgia Scenes
and Tucker's The Partisan Leader. That the South-
Vol. 10—3
34 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
ern mind was restive may be detected in such views
as those given by Lanier in his letters and in his
essays.
The Lower South rose into ascendency, therefore,
not blind to the weakness of her system, but deter-
mined to conserve her interests in the central gov-
ernment. Toombs of Georgia, Clay of Alabama,
Davis of Mississippi, Benjamin of Louisiana, were
the types of statesmen the South depended upon at
a critical period. One can appreciate the attitude of
the public servants who found themselves repre-
senting agricultural interests against the interests
of industry. They recognized that their system
imposed limitations upon them, and this knowledge
did not conduce to make them content. Indeed, at
the time that an unstable or rather hasty pressure
was brought to bear upon the slave question, evolu-
tion was effecting many changes in Southern life.
There was considerable Union sentiment in the
Lower South, until abolitionism welded the parties
together in the righteous heat of their inherited
sectional pride. This was the atmosphere in which
the theory of secession gradually took hold of the
entire South. As William Garrott Brown wrote in
substance : The abolitionist drove the South to stand
by that which they might have come to renounce
Because of insistence of the New England fanatic,
there arose the immediate influence of the Southern
fire-eater, represented by such a type Of man as
William Lowndes Yancey of Alabama.
Civil Conflict and the Lower South.
The war revealed two essential facts in the social
life of the Lower South : on the one hand the weak-
ness of her resources, and on the other the won-
derful spirit of the people themselves, among the
THE LOWER SOUTH. 35
women quite as well as among the men. Even within
their own Confederate government, the states of the
Lower South were zealously alert as to their rights
while the conflict was actually in progress. They
saw the sacrifices, the devastation of homesteads,
the rifts in large families. They saw the depression
of trade, that went to pieces, as economists tell us,
because of "defying economic laws and disobeying
the rules of sound finance." But place these condi-
tions, which were of time and circumstance, by the
side of the spirit prompting the farewell addresses
of the Southern senators in Washington, and there
will be had the fullest measure of the Southern tem-
perament— the courtesy, the forbearance, the dig-
nity of such an address as Davis made; the fiery,
bold, dramatic delivery of Toombs ; the quietly bril-
liant oratorical numbers of Benjamin. A study of
Southern statesmanship, of Southern soldiery, of
Southern family life in its intimate aspects is rich
in suggestiveness ; the conclusions reached will ulti-
mately agree with Mr. Brown's view that "the
armies of the South were finer than anything they
defended." Yet something rare and worthy came
out of the civilization of the Old South.
The fact that the South grappled successfully with
the mistakes of reconstruction points to certain
inherent excellencies bequeathed from the Old
Regime, which became permanent foundations upon
which new conditions could flourish. But there was
a tremendous factor at work also, which, having
begun before the war, served to make it possible for
the new conditions to be wisely controlled. I refer
to the elements of democratization before mentioned.
It was not the fault of reconstruction forces that
the negro was held in check, for in the social life
of the Lower South immediately following the close
36 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
of the war a wide breach was made by outsiders
between the former master and his former slave.
Tbe New South.
In some respects the reconstruction served to
make the Lower South less calculating as to class
distinction among the whites. The change that now
went on, as Mr. Murphy has so adequately proven
in The New South, l 1 was nothing less than the recon-
stitution of an aristocratic society under democratic
conditions." This has taken place in the direction
of the people at large. The white man's sense of
responsibility has made him think for the good of
the negro, who in his turn is being taught by the wise
economists of the South that there is an ideal for
the negro worth striving for, even as there is an
ideal for the white.
Illiteracy in the South is being reduced through
the agency of all those institutions which are con-
comitants of a free community. The Southerner is
contributing generously to the black man's benefit,
but he is in turn demanding of the negro a certain
individual thrift which requires of him definite civic
contribution. Statistics as to taxes will bear out the
truth of the statement that the negro is no longer
an incubus of Southern society. The present move-
ment in the South, whether in the Upper or in the
Lower, is one of great educational enthusiasm, which
does not increase through outside stimulus, but
through a conscious knowledge, among the Southern
people themselves, of what is most wanted.
The New South means the wide development of
industry; mills are running, and the state is legis-
lating child labor; farmers are learning the best
methods of scientific cultivation, libraries are pene-
trating into the isolated districts. There is activity
THE LOWER SOUTH. 3?
in every direction, betokening the alertness of the
Southern man of business. Competition has reached
the South, and the desire on the part of Montgom-
ery, Ala., for example, to double its population, and
have 100,000 inhabitants by 1910, is only one indi-
cation of the activity of all industrial and commer-
cial organizations through the South.
From the intellectual side, the Lower South is
exhibiting a remarkable tendency to examine herself
publicly ; to bring the force of frank criticism to bear
upon her problems. There is a sudden recognition
that literary isolation has heretofore deprived the
South of mental independence and free thought
which for a long time flourished around her, without
reaching her people. In other words, the civiliza-
tion of the South, politically, economically and
socially, is undergoing a surprising transformation.
As yet this has not been sufficiently great to stamp
upon the observation any definite conclusions, nor
yet has it been continuous enough to indicate how
far it will modify Southern character. For the
immigrant has only within recent years been turned
in the Southern direction.
Yet it were indeed a misfortune to lose certain
qualities of the Old Regime. A new statesmanship
is in store for the Lower South as soon as political
suspicion no longer rests upon a war time party;
a new authorship awaits the Southerner with his
face toward the future; but notwithstanding, his
inheritance is something large and vital.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.— Brown, William Garrott : The Lower South in
American History; Butler, Pierce: Judah P. Benjamin (1907);
Cairnes, John E. : Slave Power (1862); Du Bose, Witherspoon: The
Life and Times of William Lowndes Yancey (1892) ; Ingle, Edward:
Southern Side Lights (1896); Martin, Thomas E.: The Great Par-
liamentary Battle (1905); Murphy, Edgar Gardner: The Present
South (1904); Olmsted, Frederick Law: The Cotton Kingdom
(London, 1856) [The same author wrote: Journeys in the Back
1 i Q
-i. -1 t7
4w
38 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
Country, Journey Through Texas and Our Slave States] ; Page,
Thomas Nelson: The Old South, Essays Social and Political (1903) ;
Rhodes, James Ford: History of the United States (1900); Trent.
William P.: Southern Statesmen of the Old Eegimc and Life of
William Gilmore Simms; Historic Towns of the Southern States
(ed. by Lyman P. Powell, 1904) ; The Advancing South in The
World's Work (Southern number, June, 1907, World's Work),
MONTROSE J. MOSES,
Author of The Literature of the South.
CHAPTER III.
SOCIAL LIFE OF THE APPALACHIAN
REGION..
The Territory.
HE Appalachian Mountains south of Mason
and Dixon's line extend from the southern
border of Pennsylvania to the northern
counties of Georgia and Alabama. They
include the mountain masses and the enclosed valleys
and coves of nine states. The region they occupy is
about six hundred miles long and two hundred miles
wide. The natural resources of the Appalachians
are almost limitless. A king's ransom is in every
county, if it were only collected. The almost
unbroken forests are rich with timber ; and the earth
is bursting with coal, iron, copper, zinc, salt, mica,
lead, and other minerals. In the two hundred and
twenty-six counties that may be said to make up the
southern Appalachian region, the census enumer-
ators found in 1900 about 4,000,000 people.
The Mountaineers.
Within this territory lies almost a world apart.
For more than a century these mountaineers dwelt
THE APPALACHIAN KEGION. 39
practically aloof from the people in that big world
lying just outside the pale of their own beloved
mountains. They neither sought nor desired to have
outsiders come into their lives. Naturally, this iso-
lation from their kind, from the valleys and cities,
as remote and vague to them as a foreign country,
begot in them secretiveness and suspicion of the few
who intruded into the mountain fastnesses.
So, for unnumbered years the mountain region
and people remained unknown and unsought. Those
grim, stern mountains made of them a stern and
taciturn people to those alien to their own lives. As
the onward march of civilization marked the rest
of the country, bringing schools, colleges, churches
and the things that uplift humanity, these lonely
people of the mountain were left far behind.
The crudities of their lives, their lack of education
or the facilities for gaining it, their primitive homes
and methods of livelihood became more accentuated
as the rest of the world moved on apace. In their
rare excursions out into the world, they were made
to feel this difference, and a vague longing began to
stir within them.
This suspicion and aloofness frightened away, at
first, those brave souls who sought to reach the
mountaineer, and lift him out of the narrow channel
of his life. So, for a long while this Southern moun-
tain region was totally unknown to the American
people. It was as if a grim and foreboding wall
separated these stalwart people from all the rest of
humanity. The section rested in utter seclusion
from the nation 's knowledge. Even in this day many
counties are not entered by railroads. Oftentimes
only bridle paths lead from settlement to settlement
or from cabin to cabin. Thus the mountaineer's
horizon was limited by the towering summits on
40 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
every side, shutting him in from the rest of the
world. *
Thus restricted, hundreds live out their lives with-
out having gone fifty miles from the place of their
birth. Their homes, in the main, are squalid log-
cabins, often consisting of only one room. Now and
then more pretentious efforts are made, where there
are several rooms, with rough boards to give it dis-
tinction from the others. The families are usually
large, and the out-of-door life they lead gives them
unusually strong and hardy physiques. Early in life
hard and grinding toil begins with both boys and
girls, for here, with crude methods and no knowledge
to guide hand and brain to combine in the effort, it
is a bitter fight for the barest necessities of life.
This fact, perhaps, accounts for the success
attained by these mountain boys and girls when
some hand reaches out to equip them for the struggle
with the world. Frugality is ingrained, and when
opportunity is given for them to widen their field
of endeavor, that natural quality of saving soon
moulds success where less sturdy spirits might fail.
In this day you will find in cities and towns of the
South many of these mountain people, successful
and useful citizens.
Like the rest of Americans, the mountain people
are of a composite race. There is probably no
unmixed strain of blood in any community of the
United States. While it is undeniable that the moun-
tain people of the South are a composite race, the
fact remains that they are probably of about as pure
a stock as we can boast in America. The principal
element is Scotch-Irish, as is indisputably proved by
history, by tradition, and by the family names pre-
vailing in the mountains. Mingled with the descend-
ants of other races, they formed the nucleus of the
distinctively and intensely American stock who were
THE APPALACHIAN REGION. 41
the pioneers of our people in their march westward.
A century and a half have passed away and the men
of the mountains of today are the descendants of
some of those sterling pioneers. Many of these
people of the mountains do perhaps need much that
can be given from without the Appalachians, but
they have a reserve strength that, when aroused, will
speedily prove them the peers of any people.
The ancestors of the mountaineers left Europe in
search of a land where a man might be "a man for
a' that," and the descendants of those ancestors are
jealous of their American peerage. In most of the
heights of the Appalachians a foreigner is almost
unknown. The percentage of foreign-born popula-
tion in the mountains is less than one per cent.
There is at least one spot undisturbed by foreign
immigration.
The mountaineer 's bump of locality is fully devel-
oped. He has a strong attachment to his native
heath, its bracing air, its refreshing waters, its unre-
strained liberty. " 'Pears like I cain't live nowhere
else," he tells you.
The Work for the Children.
The great need of the Southern mountains is
trained teachers, preachers, and home makers who
have come in touch with the larger life through
schools. Perhaps we could best illustrate what has
been accomplished through these schools by giving a
description of a school in the northwestern part of
Georgia, which was founded to uplift the poor white
boys of the Southern mountains and to make of them
lifters and not leaners.
Beginnings are always interesting, and so the
question invariably asked by those who are inter-
ested in mountain schools is : ' * How did you happen
42 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
to start a school of this character 1 ' ' The answer is
that it grew out of a Sunday school which was
started in a little log cabin ten years ago. The
writer began by inviting people to come into a Sun-
day school. The children came regularly, bringing
not only their brothers and sisters, but also their
mothers and fathers, all shy but eager to listen and
to learn. The school grew rapidly in numbers, but
the accommodations were very poor and unsatis-
factory.
It was soon manifest that many of these children
were really unacquainted with Nature, and that they
failed to appreciate the abundant beauties lying at
their very doorsteps, but under instruction their
interest in everything grew and their rare aptitude
and quick intelligence were encouraging. Very soon
they began to bring all sorts of things to decorate
"our cabin" — such as grasses, leaves, ferns, and
even wasps nests and colored stones — a simple col-
lection from Nature 's stores which seemed to delight
them, and which they would arrange around the
"cabin" according to their fancies.
After the meetings had become somewhat estab-
lished, the next thing was to become acquainted with
these people in their cabin homes.
All of these cabins are built of rough logs, and the
interiors of most of them are smoked and dark, and,
in some instances, not overly clean. They are usually
lighted by one or two small window-openings, but
with cracks and crevices large enough for a good-
sized dog to slip through. An old musket, strings
of red and green peppers, and a miscellaneous col-
lection of various kinds of herbs, decorate the raft-
ers, while pots, pans and other cooking utensils are
usually scattered about the floor of the one living-
room ; the only other room of the family consisting
of a small "lean-to" adjacent to the cabin proper,
THE APPALACHIAN REGION. 43
used for sleeping and other purposes. As the cabin
door is always open, in the usual Southern fashion,
there is, fortunately, plenty of ventilation, and the
children live in the open air during the entire year.
But the people are poor — in some instances, very
poor ; and they have no money to educate their chil-
dren, nor have them trained in useful work or remu-
nerative labor, although both parents and children
are willing and anxious to learn. They only need
opportunities and a guiding hand to make them
useful and successful men and women whose lives
would be a blessing to humanity. To this end the
school at Rome, Ga., was established — to teach these
mountain people to do well the common things of
life, and to inspire them with confidence and ambi-
tion— and its success has been abundantly encour-
aging.
The fame of the school spreads in the mountains
from year to year. At first only the boys in the
immediate neighborhood attended the school, but
now they come from not only Georgia, but from Ala-
bama and Tennessee, and these splendid and sturdy
young lives are being moulded for broader and
better things.
To rescue these people from the isolation, the pov-
erty and the ignorance that has bound them for more
than a century, is a great work for the South, for to
them we must look to till the soil intelligently, to
people the factories, to teach and preach and to tear
down that intangible wall that has for so long held
a people aloof from its part in the world's regen-
eration.
MARTHA McCnESNEY BERRY,
Director of the Berry School, Rome, Ga.
44 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
CHAPTER IV.
EUROPEAN INFLUENCES IN THE SOUTH.
HE solidarity of public opinion in the South
has been so often commented upon that it is
difficult to realize the heterogeneous eler
ments employed in making her popula-
tion. The "solid South" is not only a political but
in many respects a social and even a religious fact,
so confirmed has the section become in conservatism
and orthodoxy. First by reason of slavery and
then of the war and then of reconstruction, the
people have been bound together by the strongest
of ties. They have acted together and thought
together. The popular tradition that has been cher-
ished as most typical of the South is that of the
Virginia Cavalier — his hospitality, his refinement,
his chivalric spirit. Widely different as are other
elements of the population, they have all been modi-
fied to some extent by this tradition. It is strange
that some historians still speak of the War of Seces-
sion as if it were a renewal of the old conflict be-
tween the Puritans and Cavaliers.
Diverse Elements in Southern Society.
It is well to remember, however, that there are
many diverse elements in Southern society, all of
them suggesting a background of European influ-
ences. The Huguenots of South Carolina, the Scotch -
Irish of the Piedmont section and of the southwest,
the French and Spanish of Louisiana, the Spanish
and Germans of Texas; at a later time, the great
Methodist and Baptist churches — constituting an
increasing middle class — all of these types have been
EUROPEAN INFLUENCES IN SOUTH. 45
important factors in Southern civilization. Some
of them are picturesque survivals in an industrial
and democratic republic, destined yet, when the sol-
idarity of opinion and of life has been broken, to
play a commanding part in a more complex civiliza-
tion. The various commonwealths and cities, viewed
in the light of their origins and early history rather
than of their later, suggest a diversity of ideas, cus-
toms and traditions that must inevitably lead to a
finer social and political life in the years to come.
Along with the solidarity of public opinion there
has been a marked provincialism, commented upon
by all outsiders and admitted even by Southern
writers. For the reasons already indicated the
South was for nearly three-quarters of a century
largely shut out from the influences of modern life
and modern thought. If, as Charles Dudley Warner
says, "the root of provincialism is localism, a con-
dition of being aside and apart from the general
movement of contemporary life," then the South
was provincial. It is well to remember, however,
that prior to the time when slavery became a fixed
economic and social institution, Southern cities and
states were the most cosmopolitan sections of the
country — they were most sensitive to European
influences. At the time when the sections met each
other in the councils of the Kevolutionary period,
New England leaders were far more provincial than
the great leaders of Virginia, who had a certain
lordly compass of mind that made them citizens of
the world. Virginia Cavaliers, as represented in
Thackeray's The Virginians, and as seen in the jour-
nals and letters of the Eighteenth 'century, were
in close touch with their kinsmen across the waters
—in trade, in learning, and in social customs and
traditions. In South Carolina, especially in Charles-
46 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
ton, the contact with English and Scottish univer-
sities and the survival of French influences among
the Huguenots, served to make Charleston more
cosmopolitan than Boston in the early years of the
Nineteenth century. Josiah Quincy, on a visit to
that city, was so struck with its architectural beauty
and its cultivated society, as to remark that he
found there what he never expected • to find in
America. In Mobile and New Orleans, the French
and Spanish rule, attended as it was by European
ideals of architecture, education and dramatic art,
served to keep intact the life and society of the
Old World. Southern universities, notably the uni-
versities of Virginia and South Carolina, were
among the first in the country to feel the influence
of foreign institutions in the changes of curriculum
and in the constitution of their faculties.
Some of these European influences in Southern
life it is our purpose to set forth, or, rather, sug-
gest. Limitations of space demand that the set-
tlement and early history of the various colonies
be taken for granted, so well known are they to the
student of American history. The coming of the
Cavaliers after the establishment of the Common-
wealth in England, the later migration of the Scotch-
Irish by way of Pennsylvania, the mingling of the
Huguenots and English in South Carolina, the influ-
ence of the constitution of Locke and Hobbes on the
state governments of the Carolinas, the settlement
of the Spanish in Florida, and of the French and
Spanish in Louisiana, and of the Catholics in Mary-
land may well be passed over in this paper. Nor is
it necessary to speak of all foreigners who exerted
a strong influence in various communities; for in
nearly every state there were certain teachers, or
preachers, or publicists, who gave impetus to indi-
EUROPEAN INFLUENCES IN SOUTH. 47
vidual lives. Almost any city has its romantic
stories that look across the seas ; and Southern biog-
raphies have much to say of traits inherited from
remote ancestors. We may admit, too, the influence
of foreign literature on individual writers, or the
social influence of brilliant women, like Madame Le
Vert, of Mobile, who first in that city, and later in
Washington, and later still in the capitals of Europe,
reigned with undisputed charm.
English Influence in the South.
The most striking European influence in the South
— extending even to the war — was naturally that of
England. The close contact between Virginia and
the mother country may best be seen in the career
and personality of William Byrd, the brilliant mer-
chant and publicist of the middle of the Eighteenth
century. Descended, like so many other Virginians,
from distinguished English ancestors, he was edu-
cated in London, lived there for a number of years
on intimate terms with some of the most prominent
men of Queen Anne's reign, established himself
at Westover, which was one of the most picturesque
reproductions of English rural estates, and collected
the largest and most significant library in the colo-
nial era. The catalogue of his library indicates that
he was familiar not only with the classical writers,
but with the contemporary writings of Swift, Addi-
son, and other writers of the Augustan age. His
own charming style — the perfection of good breed-
ing— derives from English contemporaries. His
daughter, Evelyn Byrd, was one of the social lights,
not only of colonial Virginia, but of London, where
she is reputed to have been beloved by the dashing
Earl of Peterborough.
English culture thus typified in William Byrd was
48 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
characteristic of all the most prominent families
of Virginia, many of whose sons were educated at
Eton, Oxford or Cambridge. Kich old mahogany
furniture, finely wrought silverware, portraits by
London artists, and mellow Elzevirs and Lintots are
precious heirlooms in many Virginia homes.
The same may be said of Charleston. Travelers
were impressed with the cosmopolitan air of that
city. Duke La Eochefoucault wrote in 1796:
"In no town of the United States does a foreigner
experience more benevolence or find more entertain-
ing society than in Charleston. Many of
the inhabitants of South Carolina, having been in
Europe, have in consequence acquired a greater
knowledge of our manners and a stronger partiality
to them than the people of the northern states. Con-
sequently, the European modes of life are here more
prevalent.'*
As Virginia's social life was a reproduction of
English rural life, so that of Charleston was mod-
eled after that of London, the rich planters of the
surrounding country making the city their head-
quarters during the winter. Many of these men
had amassed enough wealth to travel through Europe
as gentlemen of leisure. Out of 114 American stu-
dents in the various* law schools of London during
the colonial period forty-four were from South Caro-
lina. The young doctors generally went to Edin-
burgh, and the merchants to Franee and Holland.
Hence we have in the first year of the Nineteenth
century a group of highly cultured leaders. Hugh
S. Legare, himself a graduate of the University of
Edinburgh and for a while the leader of social and
literary circles in Charleston, was editor-in-chief of
the Southern Review (1828-1832), modeled after
the Edinburgh Review. He was justified, perhaps,
EUROPEAN INFLUENCES IN SOUTH. 49
in claiming, in one of the early numbers of his maga-
zine, that the attainments of Charlestonians in polite
literature were far superior to those of their con-
temporaries in the North, and the standards of
scholarship in Charleston were much higher than
any other city on the continent.
Evidences of the culture of Charleston are found,
not so much in literature as in the establishment of
her well equipped library, her philosophical society,
her interest in science as attested by the lectures of
Agassiz on the glaciers of Switzerland at Charleston
College in 1849, and in the patronage of art by vari-
ous Charlestonians. Ralph Izard, especially, did
much to create an art "atmosphere" by securing
pictures of himself and family from the best con-
temporary English and American artists. Portraits
by Reynolds, Gainsborough, Gilbert Stuart and
Copley, and miniatures by Malbone, Washington
Allston and the native Charlestonian, Fraser, for a
long time cherished by rich families of the city and
of the surrounding country, are now scattered in the
art galleries of Europe and America. It is not
surprising that Washington Allston should have
been born in that region and received his first
impulse to an artistic career from his own people.
The culture of Charleston, however, is seen best of
all in the architecture of the city, and especially
in that of the noble St. Michael's Church. It is not
unnatural that Henry James, in his recent visit to
this country, seeking for picturesque features in
American scenery in architecture, should have been
so "romantically affected" by the city of Charleston,
by reason of its very contrast to much contempo-
rary American life and art. "The high, compli-
cated, inflated spire of St. Michael's produces the
impression of grace and form as nothing else in
Vol. 10—4
50 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
America," he says. In the sweet old churchyard,
ancient authority seemed to him "to sit among the
sun-warmed tombs and the inter-related slabs and
the extravagant flowers. " " The place feels itself, in
the fine old dusty archway, the constituted temple of
a faith." Still more noteworthy is Owen Wister's
tribute to the city in his remarkable novel, Lady
Baltimore. Against the background of modern
industrialism and democracy he draws an appealing
picture of "the most lovely, the most wistful town
in America." "This King's Port, this little city of
oblivion, held, shut in with its lavender and pressed-
rose memories, a handful of people who are like that
great society of the world, the high society of dis-
tinguished men and women who exist no more, but
who touch history with a light hand, and left their
mark upon it in a host of memoirs and letters that
we read to-day with a starved and homesick long-
ing in the midst of our modern welter of democ-
racy. With its silent houses and gardens, its silent
streets, its silent vistas of the blue water in the
sunshine, this beautiful, sad place was winning my
heart and making it ache. Nowhere else in America
such charms, such character, such true elegance as
here." And, speaking more particularly of the
gates and churchyard of St. Michael's, he adds : "Of
these three houses of God, that one holds the most
precious flame, the purest light, which treasures the
holy fire which came from France. ' '
French Influences in the South.
The suggestion in the last sentence of the French
influence in American life may serve as an introduc-
tion to a further consideration of the influence of
France on the civilization of the South. In addition
to the Huguenot migration, there should be noted
EUROPEAN INFLUENCES IN SOUTH. 51
the French influence that sprang up in the col-
onies in the latter part of the Eighteenth century,
and during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. It
was natural that, after the romantic devotion of
French soldiers under the leadership of LaFayette
to the American cause, there should have been an
effort to mould the ideas of the country in accord-
ance with French ideals. The political influence of
France during and just after the Revolutionary War
need not detain us here. The writings of Paine and
Jefferson, and the political celebrations and fiery
speeches of the leaders of the new Republican party,
explain the great outburst of democracy. More
noteworthy, from the standpoint of American cul-
ture, was the grand project of Chevalier Quesnay
de Beaurepaire for uniting intellectually America
and France. He was the grandson of the famous
economist, Doctor Quesnay, Court Physician of
Louis XV. Coming to this country with LaFayette,
he was wounded in one of the battles of the Revo-
lutionary War. While he was recuperating he trav-
eled rather extensively throughout the country and
conceived the idea of improving it by the introduc-
tion of French culture and the fine arts. His idea
was heartily approved by Mr. John Page, the lieu-
tenant-governor and afterwards the governor of
Virginia, who urged him to procure professors from
Europe to establish a kind of French Academy of
the arts and sciences. Because of the cooperation
of a large number of prominent Virginians, he
decided to make Richmond the headquarters of the
Academy, with branch academies in Baltimore, Phil-
adelphia and New York. He went so far as to lay
the foundation of the Academy building in Rich-
mond, and then set out for France to interest the
French Academy and other artistic and scientific
52 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
societies of France, Germany and England in the
project. He believed that the highest special train-
ing might be given to American students in foreign
languages, architecture, painting, sculpture and the
sciences. He succeeded admirably in winning the
attention of leading men, and even of the king and
queen of France and their court. The plans were
brought to naught, however, by the cataclysm of
the French Revolution, which began in 1789.
Jefferson's Interest in Foreign Educational Methods.
Among those most interested in Quesnay's scheme
was Thomas Jefferson, who was at that time rep-
resenting the colonies in Paris. Jefferson had for a
number of years been interested in promoting popu-
lar education and in improving the standards of
scholarship in Virginia. As early as 1783 he had
suggested the modernization of the curriculum of
William and Mary College, his alma mater, espe-
cially urging that modern languages and the sciences
be added to what was then the stereotyped courses
in English and American colleges. In Paris, partly
as the result of Quesnay's plans, but more on account
of a temperamental interest in education, he began
to study the higher institutions of learning in
Europe. Always sensitive and even susceptible to
contemporary influences, Jefferson's open mind
seized eagerly upon the most progressive ideas then
current with regard to higher education. He was,
it need scarcely be said, profoundly affected by the
political ideas then creating the Revolution in
France. He had also been on the lookout for the
latest inventions and discoveries and ideas that
might be of interest to the American people. Never
was there a more cosmopolitan mind than his. Dur-
ing his five years' life in Europe he kept Harvard,
EUROPEAN INFLUENCES IN SOUTH. 53
Yale, William and Mary and the College of Phila-
delphia advised of all new publications that seemed
to him important.
As he studied foreign institutions and sought to
supply the needs of American colleges he conceived
the idea of building a great university for his own
state. He saw little hope of making much out of
William and Mary. He first thought of transfer-
ring to some place in Virginia the entire faculty of
the University of Geneva, which had been affected
by a political revolution at home. This faculty was
composed of some of the most learned scholars of
the continent. He was discouraged in his plan,
however, by Washington, who thought the plan of
importing a body of foreign professors was unwise
— for political reasons, as well as on account of their
ignorance of the English language. Jefferson, how-
ever, became more and more interested in building
up some sort of higher institution of learning. As
early as 1783 he had planned the Albemarle Acad-
emy for his own county. After he retired from the
presidency he resumed his plans, but soon changed
the name of the institution to Central College, and
later to the University of Virginia. He corres-
ponded with many eminent scholars, notably
Priestley, a distinguished scientist and writer on
political subjects, who had been peVsecuted in Eng-
land on account of his Unitarianism. Jefferson
hoped to secure books, papers, and scientific appa-
ratus from Priestley, with the idea that a university
would be established on a plan "broad and liberal
and modern." Jefferson was also influenced by
other foreigners, notably Dupont de Nemours, a
friend of Turgot and a well known French economist
and philosopher. The latter, while on a visit to this
country, drew up a scheme for a complete system
54 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
of education in the United States, which influenced
Jefferson's plans for the educational development
of Virginia. In 1803 Jefferson wrote to Professor
Pictet, of Geneva, asking for his ideas on the teach-
ing of science in universities, saying, "I believe
every son of science feels a strong and disinter-
ested desire of promoting it in every part of the
earth."*
But Jefferson would have been unable to carry out
his plans for university education in Virginia if
he had not had assistance from prominent men in
his own state. In 1806 Joseph C. Cabell returned
from three years' travel and study in Europe. He
had visited most of the prominent European univer-
sities, including those of Italy. He had studied the
novel system of Pestalozzi, which he afterwards
endeavored to introduce into Virginia. He had heard
the lectures of Cuvier and other professors at the
College de France. He had visited the universities
of Leyden, Oxford and Cambridge. His preeminent
interest was in science; and he first tried to get
a museum of national history at William and Mary,
but Jefferson wrote him that instead of wasting his
time in attempting to patch up an existing institu-
tion, he should direct his efforts to a higher and
more valuable object : ' ' Found a new one which shall
be worthy of the first state of the Union." So Cabell
became Jefferson's most valuable ally; as a mem-
ber of the legislature from 1809 to 1829, he gave his
persistent energy and wisdom to the furtherance of
Jefferson's plans.
When at last public opinion was committed to
the establishment of the University of Virginia,
Jefferson entrusted to Francis W. Gilmer the deli-
* For the account of Jefferson's relation to the University of Vir-
ginia every student Is indebted to Herbert B. Adams's admirable mono-
graph on that subject.
EUROPEAN INFLUENCES IN SOUTH. 55
cate and difficult task of selecting the professors in
England. Gilmer had come under the influence of
Abbe Correa, who was an exile from Portugal and
delivered lectures on botany in Philadelphia in 1813.
Gilmer met him at Jefferson's home, and attended
his lectures. He considered Correa "the most
extraordinary man now living. " 4 ' He has read, seen,
understands, and remembers everything contained
in books, or to be learned by travels, observations,
and of conversations with learned men. He is a
member of every philosophical society in the world. ' '
Gilmer corresponded regularly with George Tick-
nor, when the latter was studying at Gottingen, and
with Pictet at the University of Geneva. He pur-
chased many books from abroad, thus becoming
a specialist in botany, while at the same tune he was
one of the leading lawyers of his state.
He therefore thoroughly agreed with Jefferson
that the faculty of the university should be com-
posed of specialists, and not of men who had a
knowledge of things in general, however cultured
they might be. With this in view he embarked for
England in 1818, with instructions from Jefferson
that the high qualification of the professors would
be the only means by which they could give to the
new institution "splendor and preeminence over all
its sister seminaries.'* Gilmer had the aid of such
distinguished men as Dugald Stewart, Dr. Parr,
Lord Brougham, as well as the universities of Eng-
land and Scotland. He finally selected Professor
Blaetterman, a German, for the chair of modern
languages, and four Englishmen, who with two Vir-
ginians formed the first faculty. While the experi-
ment of foreign professors was not altogether satis-
factory, yet the tradition that was established of
securing highly trained men was a new departure
56 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
in American education. In 1820 there were only two
men in the Harvard faculty who had been educated
in Europe — Edward Everett and George Ticknor.
While most of the professors were English-
men, the curriculum of the university was largely
determined by the ideas that Jefferson had absorbed
from the Continent. The introduction of the sciences,
the emphasis laid upon modern languages and even
upon Anglo-Saxon, the pioneer work of instruction
in political science, the general freedom of the elect-
ive system, and the development of single schools
within the university were all contributions of first
importance to American education. Professor Long
established the tradition of first-rate instruction in
the classics ; when he returned to England in 1828 he
left Gessner Harrison as his successor. Long kept
Harrison posted on all the latest German discussions
in German philology, and thus the students of the
University of Virginia were familiar with the labors
of Boph before that great man was fully recog-
nized in Germany himself. The wisdom of the intro-
duction of a school of modern languages was seen in
the influence thereof on Edgar Allan Poe, who was
one of the first matriculates of the university. He
took high rank in French, and made his first repu-
tation as a writer by a translation of one of Tasso's
poems. It is a noteworthy fact, as bearing directly
on the subject of this discussion, that Poe was the
most distinctly European of all American writers.*
The influence of the experiment in higher educa-
tion at the University of Virginia was far-reaching.
It gave an impulse to the noteworthy development
of state universities during the past half century.
* The buildings and general plan of the University suggest some of
the most illustrious examples of classic architecture. Jefferson's idea
was that students and visitors might have before them reminders of the
most famous buildings and ruins of Europe.
EUROPEAN INFLUENCES IN SOUTH. 57
In the Southern states, especially, its prestige has
been supreme. Perhaps the most immediate in-
fluence was on the University of South Carolina.
Jefferson had one disappointment in the selection
of his faculty — his inability to hold Thomas Cooper,
on account of the objection of the religious
organizations to his reputed infidelity. Cooper, like
his father-in-law, Priestley, was an exile in this
country from England, after having lived in Paris
at the most exciting time of the Revolution. Edu-
cated at Oxford, he was out of sympathy with all
the conservative ideals of England, and as a writer
on political subjects gave great impetus to demo-
cratic ideals in this country. Successively a lawyer
in Philadelphia and a professor of chemistry at
Dickinson College, he was elected the first professor
at the University of Virginia, Jefferson speaking of
him as "the greatest man in America in the powers
of his mind and in acquired information — the corner-
stone of our edifice." It was a grievous blow
to give him up, but Jefferson had the satisfaction of
seeing him elected to the University of South Caro-
lina in 1819. At this institution as professor of
political economy and later as president, he exerted
a wide influence. By his contributions to the South-
ern Review, he became one of the main allies of John
C. Calhoun in the advocacy of free trade.
His successor was Francis Lieber, who in the
course of twenty years ' stay at the university wrote
the three works by which he is remembered.
Although he never was in sympathy with the institu-
tions of the South and continually fretted at the
lack of congenial fellow-workers, he owed much to
his position. Born in Berlin, he had studied in
the leading universities of his country, and espe-
cially under Niebuhr. He had translated French
58 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
and German works and was in every way alive to
contemporary influences, being a most pronounced
liberal in his political opinions. He became intensely
interesting in his teaching, bringing into his class-
room an air of contemporaneousness that must have
been particularly significant in South Carolina. One
of his first requests of the board of trustees was for
an appropriation of $50 for foreign newspapers that
his students might know current events as well as
past history.
German Influences in the South.
The influence of Lieber suggests the coming into
Southern life of German ideas. There is no such
movement, to be sure, as that which played such
an important part in the culture and literature of
New England in the middle years of the century,
nor is it to be compared with French influence in
the Southern states. And yet there were men here
and there who came under the influence of German
universities. As early as 1830 a young Virginian
was giving lectures on Anglo-Saxon at Eandolph-
Macon College — lectures based on the unpublished
researches of German scholars. Professor Gilder-
sleeve gives the best account of what Germany meant
to a few young Southerners, who like himself studied
at German universities. In his nineteenth year
Carlyle introduced him to Goethe, the most impor-
tant of all the teachers he ever had. Goethe's apho-
risms were his daily food, and he repeated the lyrics
over and over to himself in his long solitary ram-
bles. This was the epoch of what he called his Teu-
tomania — the time when he "read German, wrote
German, listened to German, and even talked Ger-
man." It is not remarkable, then, that he decided
EUROPEAN INFLUENCES IN SOUTH. 59
in 1850 to go to a German university. Three years
at Berlin, Gottingeu and Bonn, while giving him
special training as a classical philologian, contrib-
uted to the widening of his culture. "In the early
fifties," he says, "to see Germany, to enter a Ger-
man university, to sit at the feet of the great men
who had made and were making German scholar-
ship illustrious, was a prospect to stir the blood
of aspiring youth." The spirit of the reproduction
of antiquity was ' ' the formula of the men who taught
and of the students who crowded the seminaria and
lecture rooms. ' '
Contemporary with him were two young Charles-
tomans who afterwards went into law, and a little
later Thomas K. Price, who first at Bandolph-Macon
College and later at the University of Virginia, had
such a marked influence on the teaching of English
in Southern universities. When the war broke out
Sidney Lanier, heeding the advice of Professor
Woodrow who had studied under Agassiz and then
for two years in Germany, was just on the point
of going to Heidelberg. In the seventies a larger
number of Southerners went to Germany for their
education — men who have had a large part in shap-
ing the educational ideals of the present South.
The chancellor of Vanderbilt University, the presi-
dents of Tulane and of the University of North
Carolina, the vice-chancellor of the University of the
South, not to mention some of the most prominent
professors in these and other institutions, received
their higher education in Germany. It is a note-
worthy fact that Southern scholars were pioneers in
the editing of Anglo-Saxon texts in this country.
When Johns Hopkins University was established
Professor Gildersleeve of the University of Virginia
was the first member of the faculty elected; his
60 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
long and illustrious career is an evidence of the
far-reaching influence of Germany on American
life.
Nor has the German influence been confined to
academic circles. Here and there throughout the
South there are most interesting German settle-
ments, notably those in western Texas. Olmsted
observed in 1857 that half of the population of west-
ern Texas was German. They brought to that state
not only industry and a sane mode of living — often
in contrast with the slip-shod methods of slavehold-
ers— but a feeling for culture and especially for
music that seemed totally at variance with their
surroundings. When Sidney Lanier visited San
Antonio in quest of health in 1873, he found some
musicians who had no little to do with fixing his
decision to devote himself to a musical career. The
picture he gives in one of his letters suggests a most
unusual phenomenon in Southern life. He went one
night to the Maennerchor where he found seventeen
Germans seated at the singing table. "Long neck
bottles of Rhine wine were opened and tasted, great
pipes and cigars were all afire; the leader, Herr
Thielepape — an old man with long, white beard and
moustache, formerly mayor of the city — rapped his
tuning fork vigorously, gave the chords by rapid
arpeggios of his voice (a wonderful wild, high
tenor, such as thou wouldst dream that the old wealth
harpers have, wherewith to sing songs that would
cut against the fierce sea glass), and off they all
swung into such a noble old German full voiced lied,
that imperious tears rushed into my eyes. And so—
I all the time worshiping — with these great chords
we drove through the evening until twelve
o'clock."
EUROPEAN INFLUENCES IN SOUTH. 61
Spanish and French Influences in the South.
Lanier was impressed, also, with the striking
beauty of San Antonio, and especially with the
reminders of Spanish rule and tradition. It goes
almost without saying that the most picturesque of
all Southern cities is New Orleans, and that the
resistance of her social life to the ideals of Ameri-
can civilization has been most persistent. Her
very isolation, as well as her long domination by
Spanish and French influences, has kept her out
from the currents of American life. For this very
reason her Spanish architecture and her French
customs and traditions have been among the most
potent illustrations of European influence in the
South. Miss Grace King, in her charming book,
New Orleans; The Place and the People, compares
the city to "a Parisian who came two centuries ago
to the banks of Mississippi — partly out of curiosity
for the new world, partly out of ennui for the old,
and who, 'ma foi,' as she would say with a shrug of
her shoulders, has never cared to return to her
mother country." It is needless to attempt here
a description of the place or even a suggestion
of the wealth of romance that has fascinated all who
have ever come within the sphere of her influence.
Charles Dudley Warner has characterized New
Orleans as "the most cosmopolitan of provincial
cities; its comparative isolation has secured the
development of provincial traits and manners, has
preserved the individuality of the many races that
give it color, morals and character, while its close
relation to France and the constant influx of North-
ern men of business and affairs have given it the
air of a metropolis." The Creoles gave the tone
to New Orleans; "and it was the French culture,
the French view of life that was diffused. French
62 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
was a study and a possession, not a fashionable
accomplishment. ' '
The native literature of New Orleans, despite the
patient work of scholars, is not yet the possession
of the American people, but Lafcadio Hearn and
George W. Cable have done much to interpret the
romance of this city. Much of the fineness of the lat-
ter's remarkable stories must be attributed to his
early environment, while the direction of the
former's life was determined in no small degree by
his twelve years' stay in a city where he could feel
the charm of a people that still retained the charac-
teristics of childhood. Hearn said in one of his
recently published letters: "Now I am with the
Latins ; I live in a Latin city ; I seldom hear the Eng-
lish tongue except when I enter the office for a few
brief hours. * I see beauty all around me—
a strange, tropical, intoxicating beauty. I consider
it my artistic duty to let myself be absorbed into
this new life, and study its forms and color and
passion. This is a land of magical moons
and of witches and of war locks; and were I to
tell you all that I have seen and heard in these
years, in this enchanted City of Dreams, you would
verily deem me mad. ' ' And again he says, speaking
of a house in the Creole quarter, "I do not believe
one could find anything more picturesque outside
of Venice or Florence."
When New Orleans, already feeling the impress of
modern civilization, shall have come into its full
possibilities as the result of the opening of the Pan-
ama Canal, she will occupy a far more commanding
place in the life and culture of this country than she
has. For the very reason that her unique civiliza-
tion has its foundation in European rather than in
American culture, she will prove a striking contrast
ARISTOCRACY OF XORTHERX XECK. 63
to much that is monotonous and even sterile in
American life.
And, indeed, when all the influences that have been
suggested in connection with Southern communities
and commonwealths have been freed from the limita-
tions of the past — limitations due to solidarity and
to provincialism — the republic will be the richer.
The arrested development of the past may prove
a blessing in disguise; the reaction against some of
the excesses of modernity may be healthily aided
by a section which has such a rich inheritance of
romance, chivalry and culture.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Adams, Herbert B. : Thomas Jefferson and the
University of Virginia; Bisland, Elizabeth: Life and Letters of
Lafcadio Hearn; Cable, George W. : Old Creole Days; Curtis, W. E. :
The True Thomas Jefferson; King, Grace: New Orleans: The Place
and the People; Lodge, Henry Cabot: English Colonies in America:
Eaveuel : Charleston : The Place and the People ; Rhodes, James Ford :
History of the United States, 1850-77; Thackeray, W M.: The Vir-
ginians; Trent, W. P.: English Culture in Virginia; Wister, Owen:
Lady Baltimore; The Writings of William Byrd (ed. by John Spencer
Bassett).
EDWIN MIMS,
Professor of English Literature, Trinity College;
editor South Atlantic Quarterly.
CHAPTER V.
THE AEISTOCRACY OF THE NORTHERN
NECK.
The Settlement of the Northern Neck.
HAT section of Virginia which is watered
and bounded by the Rappahannock and Po-
tomac rivers and known as the Northern
Neck is one of the most interesting com-
munities in the entire South. Within the com-
64 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
pass of its few counties there arose during the Eight-
eenth century a number of important families which
produced great popular leaders and great statesmen.
Here it was that Washington, Mason and Monroe
were born ; here resided the great family of the Lees,
and here many leading spirits of colonial and revolu-
tionary Virginia had their homes. Almost without
exception these men were the product of the same
period and were born in the same social circle ; their
antecedents were practically the same; they were
brought up with the same social and political ideals ;
they had much in common. If such a community and
such a society could produce men of so great emi-
nence, that community and that society are worthy
of examination.
Although the Northern Neck was visited by Smith
and by other early adventurers, it was not settled
until after 1640, when it became the home of certain
immigrants from Kent Island. These early planters
were speedily reinforced by merchants, attracted by
the deep-flowing rivers and by other facilities for
trade. Despite Indian wars and the temporary clos-
ing of the Neck to settlers by a treaty with the
Indians, these merchants and planters multiplied and
prospered. One finds mention of Col. Richard Lee,
George Mason, the Balls, the Popes and John Wash-
ington before 1660, but one looks in vain for the other
famous names of the community. It appears that
two generations of settlers lived, flourished and died
before the real aristocracy of the Neck arrived. This
fact, which is to be observed elsewhere in Virginia,
remains one of the mysteries of earlv American
colonization.
The " Cavalier Immigration," which took place
during the Commonwealth period in England, is gen-
erally supposed to have exercised a potential influ-
ARISTOCRACY OF NORTHERN NECK. 65
ence on settlement in Virginia, but so far as the
records show, this immigration had no more effect
on the Northern Neck than the coming of any similar
number of equally prominent men would have had.
It was with the Restoration that the proprietor-
ship of the Northern Neck — a most interesting epi-
sode in Virginia's history — became valid. During
his exile, Charles II. had granted the entire North-
ern Neck to some half-dozen of his courtiers, and
when, with the Restoration, he returned to power,
he renewed the grant. Under its terms the lands of
the Neck were practically given to these followers
of the King, who were empowered to grant them to
settlers for a fixed quit-rent.
The Virginia authorities protested in vain against
this act of royal favor, and were eventually com-
pelled to permit a new survey of the Neck and the
renewal of land-grants from the hands of the Pro-
prietors. The latter decided that all land-holders
who had taken up lands since September 2, 1661, must
apply for their lands anew, and must pay a quit-rent
of two shillings per hundred acres for them. For
some years the settlers disregarded this order, and
gave the Proprietors much concern as to their hold-
ings; but at length, following the example of Rich-
ard Lee, they agreed to pay their quit-rents and
accept the rule of the proprietors. Meanwhile, the
control of the original grant had passed to Thomas,
Lord Culpeper, and from him to his daughter Kath-
erine, who married Lord Fairfax. Her son, Thomas,
sixth lord, was Proprietor of the Neck during the
period of its greatest prosperity and resided for
many years in the colony.
This peculiar ownership of the Neck, interesting
in itself, appears to have been merely an incident in
the history of the community, for it was as easy to
Vol. 10—5
66 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
secure grants from the colonial land office as from
Lord Fairfax. On the other hand, the agents of
Lord Fairfax were generally residents of the Neck
and saw to it that their friends and relatives secured
an abundance of lands and easy terms. Thus, as
late as 1743, William Beverley applied to Lord Fair-
fax for 10,000 acres adjoining the Carters' 50,225
acres, and incidentally mentions a second tract of
10,000 acres which he and a friend would like to take
up. Again, Landon Carter patented 66,800 acres
and, with others, secured 41,000 acres in a single day,
while Councillor Robert Carter's entire holdings of
63,093 acres were held by patent from Lord Fairfax.
With the beginning of the Eighteenth century ap-
peared those families which were destined to form
the aristocracy of the Northern Neck and the basis
of its social fabric. In addition to the Lees, Balls,
Masons, and Washingtons, the records mention the
Carters, the Tayloes, the Wormeleyes, the Newtons,
the Fitzhughs, and others. The heads of most of
these families belonged to honorable, though unti-
tled, families in England. Many of them had pre-
viously settled in other counties of Virginia, while
some came direct from England, or else had removed
from Maryland.
Special Characteristics.
Taking up large grants of land along the rivers
Eappahannock and Potomac and their tributary
branches, these men established families in the course
of the next decade, multiplied, intermarried and
established a society having certain marked char-
acteristics.
These characteristics were three in number : First,
the leading families distributed among themselves
the military and political offices of the colony and
ARISTOCRACY OF NORTHERN NECK. 67
practically voiced the will of the whole Northern
Neck. Family ties were close and political prefer-
ment was easy ; no sooner did one member of a great
family secure a place under His Majesty's govern-
ment than he would at once seek offices for his kins-
men. In the course of time, as the result of this
system, the Council of Virginia became practically
the assembly of the leading families, with due con-
sideration given the aristocrats of the Northern
Neck. In like manner, the militia officers and the
Burgesses were, almost without exception, repre-
sentatives of a few prominent families. Naturally
enough, when the crisis of the Revolution came, these
men assumed the leadership of the people in the
conventions, in the assemblies, in Congress and in
the field.
The second characteristic of the social order of the
Neck was the rapid increase and intermarriage of
the aristocrats. Take the Carter family as an exam-
ple : John Carter I. had five wives and his son, John
Carter II., was twice married, the second time to a
widow. The first husband of this lady was thrice
married, and her mother had five or six husbands.
Charles Carter I., of Cleve, son of "King" Carter,
had three wives — Taliaferro, Walker and Byrd —
and was the father of twelve children. Councillor
Eobert Carter, though married but once, had seven-
teen children. Similarly repeated marriages in other
families made connections very numerous and led
directly to the formation of a society which was suffi-
cient in itself and hence exclusive.
The last important characteristic of this social
order was its practical unity of interest. The main-
tenance of their large landed interests, a proper mar-
ket for their crops, the assurance of their places in
the councils of the colony, the integrity of their social
68 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
aristocracy — these were things which concerned all
alike. Hence it was that the large planters presented
a solid front against all reforms and all parties
which did not accord with their own interests. Hence,
also, when the Revolution came, the leading families,
without exception, threw in their lot with the colo-
nists. Only the Ralph Wormeleyes, father and son,
Robert Beverley and some connections of the Grymes
family, joined Governor Dunmore.
Homes as Social Centres.
The social system thus characterized had many
interesting and commendable features. Most of the
leading planters built, before 1750, homes that were
centres of social activity. "King" Carter had his
original residence at Corotoman, and of his descend-
ants Charles Carter had his at Cleve, Landon Carter
lived at Sabine Hall, Robert Carter at Nomini Hall.
The Tayloe seat was Mount Airy, the Grymes resided
at Brandon, the Lees at Menokin, at Chantilly and at
Stratford, the Wormeleyes at Rosegill, the Masons
at Gunston Hall, the Fitzhughs at Marmion and
Eagle's Nest, the Washingtons at Bushfield and, a
little later, at Mount Vernon.
While the magnificence of some of these homes
has been greatly exaggerated, most of them were
comfortable and some were even commodious. For
example, Nomini Hall, the seat of Councillor Robert
Carter, was a brick mansion, 76 feet by 44 feet, with
four rooms on each of its two floors, all of them
large and handsome. The large porch of the house
could be seen from a distance of six miles, and its
stuccoed walls stood out boldly against the land-
scape. Around it were four smaller brick houses, set
at the four corners of a rectangle and serving as
schoolhouse, coachhouse, stable and workhouse. Back
ARISTOCRACY OF NORTHERN NECK. 69
of these stretched the other outhouses with the
" house-quarters," making a little street. Scarcely
less extensive were Kosegill, Mount Airy, and other
homes. The interiors of these mansions displayed
various degrees of elegance, reflecting the taste of
their owners. Col. John Tayloe, of Mount Airy, who
was famous for his race horses, decorated the walls
of his mansion with twenty-four paintings of Eng-
lish race horses, " drawn masterfully and set in ele-
gant gilt frames." Practically all of the house fur-
nishings of these great land holders came by direct
importation from England, and their loss caused
great distress to their owners. William Byrd has,
left a most humorous account of Mrs. Spotswood's
distress when her great imported pier-glass was
ruined by the gambols of a tame deer.
In these homes was always a welcome for the vis- -vJ?
itor, whatever his estate. Frequently guests would
dine and remain over night with a family, when only
their namesjEere known, and these only to the host
in person^ wandering clergymen were ever welcome
at Nomini Hall; visiting sea captains were given
cheer at all the homes ; even overseers sat with the
family by invitation and shared in their hospitality.
In the main, however, visitors were neighbors of the
aristocracy, and often remained for a day at a time.
It was not unusual to have half a dozen guests return
with the master from church. At his annual ball,
Col. Landon Carter gladly entertained and lodged a
score; even Presbyterian James Gordon had his
dozen guests to hear James Waddell preach.
This hospitality included abundant provision for
the wants of the inner man. The nearby rivers and
bays gave ample supplies of fish and of oysters, while
the large farms supplied fresh mutton and, less fre-
quently, beef. Fruits, vegetables and the like came
70 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
from the plantation. There was no sparing of
drinks: porter, beer, cider, rum and brandy toddy
were served with a single dinner at Nomini Hall, and
on another occasion the delicate sensibilities of those
who were drinking Madeira and lime punch were
offended by a sea captain who demanded grog. After
the meal came the toasts — to the King, to the Queen,
to the Governor and Council of Virginia, to a fail-
price for Virginia commodities, to the friends of
America, and to the ladies. Often it was sunset
before the gentlemen left the table.
Music, dancing, riding and cards were the chief
amusements of the guests. Many of the homes were
provided with harpsichords or with the newly-in-
vented "forte-piano," and Nomini Hall contained
all the musical instruments known at the time. Danc-
ing schools were regularly held, and attendance upon
them was at once part of the education and of the
pleasure of the young people. Generally a meeting
of the school was held fortnightly at the various
homes, and the entire school lodged with the host of
the occasion. Cards were a favorite amusement,
though they were not used as frequently as a North-
ern visitor, Fithian, had expected. In addition to
these indoor amusements, there were out-of-door
events which added much to the enjoyment of life:
The hospitable captain of some visiting vessel would
invite the leading men and their families aboard and
furnish lavish entertainment — it might be boat races,
or a great dance, and a splendid dinner was always
served. On one such occasion forty-five ladies and
sixty gentlemen assembled aboard the Beaufort off
Hobbes Hole. The Fredericksburg Fair was likewise
a time of general festivity, with its gathering of the
aristocracy and its races. Races were also held at
the various county courts. Colonel Tayloe's "Yor-
o g
Q
« o
. "o
ARISTOCRACY OF NORTHERN NECK. 71
ick" won £500 at a single running, and a similar bet
at the Bichmond court created no particular excite-
ment. Occasionally, too, the young gentlemen of the
community would ride off to a cock pit, where stakes
ran high.
The Church in the Social Life.
The church was an important phase of social life.
Most of the planters belonged to the Established
Church. Many were wardens and vestrymen, and
some, "King" Carter for example, built churches at
their own expense. On Sunday morning the family
coach, with its four or six horses, was brought out,
while the less pretentious "chair" and the riding
horses were pressed into service to convey the fam-
ily and guests to church. Even then the importance
of the aristocracy was duly recognized; the rest of
the congregation always waited, in early days, until
"King" Carter should arrive and enter the church
with his retinue to occupy the fourth of that sacred
edifice, reserved for himself and his family. In like
manner, four leading families of the aristocracy
secured permission to build a twenty-foot annex to
the church, where they might sit and hear the serv>
ice, undisturbed by others. AlLthe leading families
had their own pews, which were leased for life and
ornamented with the family arms. And if the short
sermons did not appeal to the Presbyterian Fithian,
who was used to lengthy Princeton discourses, they
fully satisfied the aristocrats of the Neck.
In addition to its spiritual function, the Sunday
worship served also as a general meeting for busi-
ness conferences. The planters generally remained
in the church yard discussing the price of tobacco
and kindred topics until the church bell rang, and
frequently lingered until the clerk left his place and
called upon them to enter. This meeting was con-
?2 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
tinued after the service and frequently ended in
adjournment to some near-by mansion for dinner.
It was doubtless in the church yards on such occa-
sions and at the courts that the leading men com-
pared views on political questions and made possible
their practically unanimous action against Great
Britain.
Contrary to accepted tradition, one reads little of
quarrels in the vestries and comparatively little of
scandals in the pulpit. Perhaps Landon Carter of
Sabine Hall gave more uneasiness to the clergy than
did any other man. When the Rev. William Kay
offended him, he nailed up Kay's church and forbade
the minister to enter. With great difficulty Kay's
supporters gained entrance through one of the doors,
but they were unable to open the other. In conse-
quence, Kay preached for more than a year in the
open air. On another occasion, Landon Carter was
quietly seated in church when he happened to see
Reuben Beale, who had married Landon 's daughter
Judith much against the wishes of her father. The
old man promptly took up his hat, bade everyone an
audible good-day and started home afoot, telling his
servant to follow with his horses and his prayer-
book. Such scenes, however, were the exception. In
the main, the church was viewed with becoming
respect, its business was transacted with patience
and care, its clergy were kindly regarded.
Industry and Education.
It must not be supposed from the foregoing de-
scription of social life, that the aristocrats gave
themselves up to pleasure-seeking without restraint.
With large families, large plantations and large
numbers of slaves, they were compelled to be careful
in business, and many of them showed no small abil-
i. DRAYTON HALL, ON THE ASHLEY RIVER.
2. PRINGLE RESIDENCE. CHARLESTON.
ARISTOCRACY OF NORTHERN NECK. 73
ity in this direction. Robert Carter of Nomini Hall
was perhaps the richest man in the Neck during the
period preceding the Revolution, and he had various
business enterprises, including a large mill and a
biscuit oven for making ship 's biscuit. Through his
wife he also had an interest in the Patapsco Iron
"Works at Baltimore. Other planters carried on dif-
ferent industries; many of them owned ships, some
ran mills, and others, including Governor Spotswood
and the Washington family, engaged in the iron
industry. Considering their extravagant style of
living, one is surprised to observe the amount of
ready money accumulated by some of these planters.
When Thomas Lee 's mansion was burned in 1728-29
he lost £10,000 cash. Robert Carter incidentally
mentioned that if he died he would leave his wife
£6,000 ready money. "King" Carter was reputed
to have left much more in actual money.
The leading planters likewise took pains to pro-
vide for the education of their children and to pre-
pare them for the serious work of life. Many sent
their sons to William and Mary College ; others pre-
ferred to have their sons ' education finished in Eng-
land, and the names of prominent Northern Neck
families are frequent in the registers of Eton, of
Oxford and Cambridge, and of the Temples, while
those of the Washington brothers appear in the reg-
ister of Appleby school. Sometimes young men
would enter Princeton, and occasionally one wan-
dered to far-off New England. Many planters em-
ployed private tutors for their younger children;
these tutors were regarded as members of the fam-
ily and were given complete control over their
charges. Nor were aspiring boys and girls at a loss
for reading matter, for the inventories of old estates
in the Northern Neck show numerous large libraries
74 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
and but few instances where some books are not
listed. Law, medicine, theology, the classics and
English literature made up the bulk of these col-
lections.
The Decline of the Old System.
This social system reached its maturity from 1750
to 1775, that is, during the period in which the great
men of the Northern Neck were maturing. With
the Revolution the system collapsed, from causes
which may be briefly enumerated. In the first place,
the years preceding the Revolution had been rife
with extravagance and speculation — against which
evils such men as Landon Carter had long protested.
This course had seriously crippled many large plant-
ers before the Revolution and, had that event not
occurred, it is safe to say many planters would have
been ruined by their own recklessness. The second
influence in the overthrow of the old system was
inherent in the Revolution itself — the failure of a
foreign market, low money values, inability to mar-
ket commodities. A still more potent factor, how-
ever, was the abolition of entails and^ thejionsecpienJ;
f the largo- patatpg H not unfrequently
happened that a man who had lived on a lavish scale
left so many descendants that the shares of each
were so small as to preclude any attempt at the old
scale of living. The last element in the overthrow
of the .old social system wasjjiejiisestablishment of
the Church of England^ The EstaBIislied Church,
wiHTTfs TcTaimslipon the property of every man, gave
strength to the aristocrats who formed its communi-
cants, and received strength in turn from their
patronage. Once that church was placed on the
level with dissenting churches, its followers no longer
could boast any spiritual superiority over their
neighbors.
ARISTOCRACY OF NORTHERN NECK. 75
The surest evidence of the overthrow of the old
order of things is the appearance of new names
among the office holders. The smaller land owners
who, before the Revolution, had been of no impor-
tance, rose rapidly ; they held the offices in the militia,
they were justices of the peace, they went to the
legislature, they ousted the former undisputed
holders of office. In Spottsylvania and in Fairfax
counties, the influence of the merchant classes from
Fredericksburg and from Alexandria was plainly
felt. It is perhaps unjust to say that these new
leaders cherished resentment against their aristo-
cratic neighbors, but it is manifest that they were
determined to claim and to maintain their rights.
From 1790 the decline of the old social aristocracy
was rapid. Estates were divided, subdivided and
again divided; old family seats were sold, and old
names lost their prestige. New families sprang up,
who bought the old estates, increased the number of
slaves and established a new order of living. It was
however, from the old ante-Revolutionary aristoc-
racy, not from this post-Revolutionary society that
the leading men of the Nineteenth century in the
Northern Neck were called. They maintained an
open hospitality and a generous style of living in
the period prior to the War between the States, but
they had neither the fortunes nor the estates of the
original aristocracy.
The War between the States definitely brought an
end to this second aristocracy and impoverished all
alike. Nevertheless, there remain at present some
vestiges of the old order of things. A few estates
remain in the hands of the descendants of the orig-
inal ante-Revolutionary aristocracy and are the cen-
tre of the social system of today. One observes,
upon close examination, that the old families cling
76 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
together and maintain the traditions, if not the
splendors, of their ancestors.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. — The source-material for social life in The North-
ern Neck is abundant but not generally accessible. The Virginia
Magazine of History and Biography (Richmond, 1893-1908, Vols.
I-XVI), and the William and Mary Quarterly (Williamsburg, 1893-
1909, Vols. I-XVI) contain many documents. In the latter are the
diaries of Landon. Carter and James Gordon, residents of the Neck
during its period of greatest prosperity. Fithian, Philip Vickors:
Journal and Letters, 1767-74 (Princeton, 1900), is most important
as the expression of a Northern tutor who remained for more than
a year in the family of Councillor Carter of Nomini Hall. The,
Journal of a Young Lady of Virginia, 1782 (ed. E. V. Mason, Bal-
timore, 1871), is a brief but suggestive narrative by one of the
younger members of the Lee family. The Diary of John Harrow er,
1773-76, in The American Historical Review (Vol. VI, pp. 65-107),
is also valuable. Of court-records only those of Spottsylvania county,
1721-1800, have been published (ed. by W. A. Crozier, New York,
1905). These are chiefly important for names. The important con-
temporary works are: Byrd, William: Writings (ed. John S. Bas-
sett, New York, 1901) and especially his Progress to the Mines, 1737;
Beverley, Eobert: History of Virginia, 1722; Hsrtwell, Blair and
Chilton: Present State of Virginia and The College, 1727 (written
1695-96); Jones, Hugh: Present State of Virginia, 1724; Keith,
William: History of Virginia, 1738. Genealogies mentioned may be
traced through the excellent Finding list published in The Virginia
State Library Bulletin (Vol. I., No. 1).
Important authorities are: Conway, M. D.: Barons of the
PatomacTc and The EappahannocJc (New York, 1892), a most un-
satisfactory account; Glenn, Thomas: Some Colonial Mansions
and Those Who Lived in Them (First Series, Philadelphia, 1899, con-
taining an able article by Kate Mason Rowland on "The Carter Fam-
ily"); Meade, William: Old Churches, Ministers and Families of
Virginia (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1861, a standard authority) ; Pryor,
Mrs. R. A.: The Mother of Washington and Her Times (New York,
1903); Slaughter, Philip: History of St. George's Parish (New
York, 1847, 2d ed., Richmond, 1890), and History of Truro Parish
(ed. E. C. Goodwin, Philadelphia, 1907).
DOUGLAS S. FREEMAN,
Richmond, Va.
THE OLD REGIME IN VIRGINIA. 77
CHAPTER VI.
THE OLD REGIME IN VIRGINIA.
Characteristics of the Period.
the first shipload of colonists in Virginia
there are said to have been "four carpen-
ters, twelve laborers and fifty-four gentle*
men,'* and the leader of that adventurous
expedition complained in bitterness of spirit of the
policy which sent such settlers into the American
wilderness. But it did not take him long to learn
that no one of the carpenters or laborers could fell
more trees in a day than one of his "gentlemen
adventurers"; and if he had been endowed with
the vision of prophecy he might have taken courage,
to see that in the permanence of the race qualities
which these men possessed and exhibited, lay the
foundations of the greatness which their successors
of the same strain were to achieve and illustrate
upon the continent of America.
In a democratic age, and among a composite popu-
lation, it has become not unfashionable to decry the
claims of inherited talents and of transmitted social
and political abilities, and to forget the significant
saying of the greatest of the English political phi-
losophers, that "people will not look forward to
posterity who never look backward to their ances-
tors." But the impartial scientist, regardless of
political sentiment, vouches for the value of per-
sistent and continued race and family character^
istics, and the newly developed law of eugenics pro-
claims their tremendous importance in the progress
of human events.
78 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
Professor N. S. Shaler, of Harvard University,
in 1891, wrote as follows :
"I sought to find a body of troops, whose ancestors had been
for many generations upon our soil, and whose ranks were essentially
unmixed with foreigners, or those whose forefathers had been but a
short time upon this continent. It proved difficult to find in the
Northern armies any commands which served the needs of the inquiry
which I desired to make. It seemed necessary to consider a force of
at least five thousand men in order to avoid the risks which would
come from insufficient data. In our Federal army it was the custom
to put in the same brigade regiments from different districts, thus
commingling commands of pure American blood with those which
held a considerable percentage of foreigners, or men of foreign
parents. I found in my limited inquiry but one command which
satisfied the needs of the investigation, and this was the First Brigade
of Kentucky troops in the rebel army. In the begining of the war
this brigade was recruited mostly in the slave holding district of
Kentucky, its ranks being filled mainly with farmers' sons. It is
possible to trace the origin of the men in this command with suf-
ficient exactitude by the inspection of the muster rolls. Almost every
name upon them belongs to well-known families of English stock,
mainly derived from Virginia. It is possible, in a similar way, to
prove that with few and unimportant exceptions these soldiers were
of ancient American lineage. Speaking generally, we may say that
their blood had been upon the soil for a century and a half; that is,
they were about five generations removed from the parent country.
"When first recruited, this brigade contained about five thousand
men. From the beginning it proved as trustworthy a body of infantry
as ever marched or stood in the line of battle. Its military record is
too long and too varied to be even summarized here. I will only note
one hundred days of its history in the closing stages of its service.
May 7, 1864, this brigade, then in the army of Gen. Joseph Johnston,
marched out of Dalton, eleven hundred and forty strong, at the be-
ginning of the great retreat upon Atlanta before the army of Sher-
man. In the subsequent hundred days, or until September 1, the
brigade was almost continuously in action or on the march. In this
period the men of the command received eighteen hundred and sixty
death or hospital wounds, the dead counted as wounds, and but one
wound being counted for each visitation of the hospital. At the end
of this time there were less than fifty men who had not been wounded
during the hundred days. There were two hundred and forty men
left for duty and less than ten men deserted.
"A search into the history of warlike exploits has failed to show
me any endurance of the worst trials of war surpassing this. We
must remember that the men of this command were at each stage of
their retreat going farther from their firesides. It is easy for men
to bear great trials under circumstances of victory. Soldiers of
ordinary goodness will stand several defeats; but to endure the
despair which such adverse conditions bring, for a hundred days, de-
mands a moral and physical patience, which, so far as I have learned,
has never been excelled in any other army."*
* Nature and Man in America. (New York, 1891, p. 275.)
THE OLD REGIME IN VIRGINIA. 79
These men were the ultimate product of the old
regime in Virginia. They were primarily of gentle
blood, belonging * ' to well known families of English
stock, mainly derived from Virginia." They were
the final result of social and economic conditions
that had concurred with their racial permanence to
create in them a superlative and perhaps unex-
ampled measure of moral and physical stamina.
In one of Governor Spotswood's published letters
he complained that the Council in Virginia included
in its ten members six who were related to Mr.
Ludwell ; and on March 9, 1713, he wrote :
' ' The greater part of the present Council are related to the Family
"of the Burwells. * * * If Mr. Bassett and Mr. Berkeley should
take their places, there will be no less than seven so near related that
they will go off the Bencli whenever a Cause of the Burwells come
to be tryed."
These declarations of family ascendancy serve to
exemplify and to illustrate the social and political
conditions of the colony at the time when they were
made ; and they were conditions which had continued
and developed with a steady persistence practically
from the period of Smith's first gentlemen adven-
turers. The structure of society and of government
alike had, in the hundred years since the settlement
at Jamestown, been firmly secured upon the founda-
tions of the family. The privileged class, as it then
existed, was composed almost exclusively of the large
landed proprietors of the river valleys, who erected
stately mansions upon their demesnes, of an archi-
tectural type so distinctive and so characteristic as
still to remain an impressive feature of their con-
temporary civilization, and to give a name to the
style which they represent. These houses were fin-
ished and furnished with a taste and luxuriousness
which the wealth of their owners enabled them to
gratify ; and the marble mantelpieces, and mahogany
80 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
doors and panels, and the costly and beautiful
furniture of chairs, tables, sideboards, and bed-
steads of the period, remain to proclaim the edu-
cated eclecticism and the ample means that pro-
duced them. The growth of the tobacco trade, a
larger source of wealth than might even have been
the discovery of the gold of which the earlier adven-
turers dreamed, had already assumed in Spots-
wood's time vast and significant proportions; and
the tobacco ships from Glasgow and Whitehaven
and London whitened with their sails the river ways
of the James, the York and the Potomac at the
period in which he wrote. The owners of the Vir-
ginia river low grounds were the owners, too, of
hordes of African slaves, and from the one, by the
labor of the other, was produced the nicotian plant,
whose propagation was the source of colonial wealth
and of social ease.
Naturally, the planters found at once the most
agreeable and most practical outlet for their talents
and energies, and a gratification of their social
instincts, in holding office and directing public affairs
under the colonial government. The natural tend-
ency of aristocratic superiority, amplified in impor-
tance by large possessions, and characterized by
such a segregation as sprung from a residence in
country districts, was to develop individual courage,
self-reliance, and self-esteem and a steady adherence
to well grounded principles ; and these qualities com-
bined in their possessors to urge them in the direc-
tion of what has been regarded from the beginnings
of history as the most exalted of human pursuits,
the art and practise of government.
The exercise of governmental power produced in
the colonial Virginian a characteristic conservatism.
With the development of a permanent social and
political status, the desire of novelty and of change
THE OLD REGIME IN VIRGINIA. 81
ceased to exist; and the earlier spirit of adven-
ture in its larger sense disappeared. The aviditas
novarum rerum, which the Latin writers characterize
as synonymous with revolution, had no foothold in.
the colony; and what is known in history as the
American Revolution sprang less from the desire \
for political and social change in the Virginians than
from that proud sense of a right of local self-gov-
ernment, and that resentment of alien interference
with domestic conditions, which were distinctive of
their descendants in 1860.
The Council and the House of Burgesses afforded
arenas for the exhibition of talents, and for the
illustration of social position, no less than for the
exercise of political power; while the more imme-
diately local offices were sought and held by the
gentry of the colony, not only for their frequently
large emoluments, but also for the influence and
importance which accompanied their possession.
The Established Church constituted a conspicuous
feature of the civil government, for the vestry was
the local legislative body, and the office of vestry-
man was consequently one of dignity and corre-
sponding power. A position on the magisterial
bench, which made the County Court, was equally
important; while the clerkships of the counties, on
account of their fees and perquisites, were regarded
as highly desirable public places by the most promi-
nent representatives of the powerful families.
Contiguity of rural residence, and the exclusive-
ness of social relations, which, while maintaining a
constant and overflowing hospitality to high and
low alike, preserved at the same time an impassable
social boundary, served at once to establish and
delimit the social contact. In consequence, the fami-
lies of the great land owners of the river sections
82 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
had already become in the first half of the Eighteenth
century more or less immediately connected with
and related to each other by consanguinity and
affinity, and had acquired a dominant control in the
government, as in the social life, and had established
themselves as the privileged class of the colony;
while from its earliest periods down to the final over-
throw and destruction of the old regime, a distin-
guishing mark of this dominant class in Virginia
was the mutual interest of its members in the wel-
fare of their relatives and connections, whose politi-
cal and personal advancement each member of the
coterie sought to aid as opportunity offered itself.
The unprivileged class, consisting of small farm-
ers with comparatively few slaves, and the descend-
ants of workmen, shopkeepers, artisans and
* ' redemptioners, " were chiefly set apart from the
more powerful class by their lack of wealth, and in
a majority of instances by their lack of education
and of culture. The slaves themselves, being chat-
tels, may not be counted as constituting any portion
of the existing social organization, save as the most
important cornerstone on which it was established.
About this society, unique in history as having its
basic support in African slavery, and as being prac-
tically a republican government administered by
white men, grew up in the golden period of the two
decades preceding the Revolution, a refinement and
ease of life, and a philosophical comprehension of
government, which were not excelled by those that
characterized the then ruling classes in England,
with whom these colonial Virginians had maintained
the ties and associations of a common origin, a
common language and literature, and a common
government.
Many of the young aristocrats of the new world
THE OLD REGIME IN VIRGINIA. 83
were educated at Oxford and Cambridge, and
brought back with them, on their return from the
mother country, a renewed and revivified knowledge
of its society and of its intellectual life, and an even
more exalted pride in its history and traditions than
they had taken with them. Those who remained in
Virginia grew up under the aristocratic political,
social and religious influences of the venerable
foundation of William and Mary College, which had
continued from its early beginnings to be the
influences of England. Upon the walls of the ma-
jestic mansions that adorned the banks of the Poto-
mac, the Rappahannock, the York and the James
rivers, hung the portraits and pictures of preceding
generations, painted by the great artists of Eng-
land. On the shelves of their libraries, many of
which were large and well selected, were the mas-
terpieces in prose and poetry of the great English
writers. The very clothes which the owners of these
mansions and their wives and daughters wore were
English made; the silver plate, much of which bore
the heraldic symbols that the family which possessed
them had been entitled by law to use in the old
country, and which adorned their sideboards and
tables, was the product of English workmanship;
their carriages, chaises and chairs came from Eng-
land ; their houses were furnished and equipped from
the mother country; and their most delicate viands,
and their finest wines and liquors were similarly
imported thence.
The colonial Virginian of the latter half of the
Eighteenth century was essentially English and per-
meated with all the Englishman's pride of race, his
conservatism, and his genius for government, yet
subject to the modifications of a social environment
which knew no ranks or titles of nobility, and to
84 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
physical influences of climate and soil, which differ-
entiated it from that of the home country. With
these English instincts and inheritances was mingled
in him a certain Gallic capacity for enjoyment, that
may have sprung in equal parts from the character
of his sports and recreations, and from the brilliant
and sparkling atmosphere and the more rarefied
air of his new and sunnier land.
The proverbial Virginia hospitality had its incep-
tion in the ease of existence that succeeded the
earlier hardships of the adventurers, and the pleas-
ures of life which adorned that hospitality were
enjoyed by their possessors in their fullest measure.
Music and dancing lent lightness to the domestic
duties, while at the colonial capital of Williamsburg
the assembly balls, and the occasional appearances
at the theatre of companies of English actors, gave
diversion to the people of fashion and prominence
who gathered there during the sessions of the House
of Burgesses, or in attendance upon the glittering
courts of the royal governors.
Among the men, horse racing and the breeding of
fine animals were pursuits of both interest and
profit; and hunting and fishing and various other
outdoor sports stamped the hall-mark of distinction
upon the good rider, the accurate shot and the accus-
tomed navigator and woodsman. Out of these
amusements and avocations sprung the qualities
and characteristics which, upon the approach of
war, made of the Virginians soldiers who only lacked
the technical discipline of military instruction and
of brief experience to encounter with success the
regiments of the finest trained soldiery of the world.
But, beyond all else, the occupation by the colonial
planter of the position of master and ruler over his
slaves had enlarged and intensified the natural and
THE OLD KEGIME IN VIRGINIA. 85
inherited tendencies and capacities to govern, which
had come to him with the strain of his English
descent. By virtue of his origin, his education, his
dominance of an inferior and subject race, he was
from the beginning no less a ruler, through the
necessities and circumstances of his environment,
than by the inclinations of his blood and his study
of the teachings and examples of history. Thus it
befell that the colony, being never without negro
slavery, was never destitute of a statesmanship of
ability and distinction; and when at last war arose
on the political horizon, its earliest fires disclosed
figures in Virginia that loomed colossal in its lurid
light. From the earlier ranks of the old regime
appeared leaders, who were such by the natural and
inevitable evolution of their racial, social, political
and economic antecedents. The Virginia family,
sprung of a pure English strain, fostered upon Eng-
lish inheritances and traditions, and drawing its
very sap and essential vigor from English life, pos-
sessing at the same time the larger economic sub-
strata of rich and abundant lan'ds, and a negro slave
population, and fulfilled with a sense of personal
and political freedom that sprung out of laws of
their own making, unhampered also by the restrain-
ing influences of artificially created rank and caste,
had produced, at the dawn of the Revolution, a race
of men who, judged by its individual representatives,
have been excelled in no country for their extraordi-
nary ability as statesmen and empire builders.
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, George
Mason, the Randolphs, John Marshall, the Lees,
James Madison, the Harrisons, and many others of
scarcely less fame, were the illustrators and orna-
ments of the genius and glory of their race, that had
grown up and developed in a congenial region upon
86 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
the foundations of English pedigrees, the amplifica
tion of family power, and the ownership of fertile
land and negro slaves. They were a race who have
been truthfully and dispassionately described by
one of the clearest visioned and best informed of
modern American historians as "simple and whole-
some in tastes, dignified in bearing, courteous and
hearty in manner, but proud and sensitive in spirit,
and instinctively resentful of all unwarranted inter-
ference with their rights."*
The colonial Virginians had had secured to them,
in the first charter of the colony, "the privileges,
franchises and immunities of native born English-
men forever;" and the spirit of civil liberty had
burned in them with a bright and flaming light from
the beginning. Out of this quenchless spirit of indi-
vidual and political freedom grew the Revolution;
and with its successful termination under the leader-
ship of a Virginian, and upon Virginia soil, came
such a change in political thought and political con-
ditions as might well have been expected to over-
throw the existing social status, and thereby to bring
about a total subversion of the order of the state.
i^Entail and primogeniture were abolished, and a
deadly blow to the continued permanency of aristo-
cratic family pride and power, and perpetuated
family wealth, seemed visible in their abolition.
The Established Church was destroyed, and religious
freedom was founded upon statute, whereby the
inter-relation of society and government appeared
to have been wounded in one of the closest joints of
its armor. But, after all, the democratic acclaim
of "liberty, equality, fraternity," illustrated only
by a new battle-cry the old unfaltering Virginian
spirit of personal and civil liberty. The social status
^— Jt^obcrt E. Lee, by Philip Alexander Bruce. (Philadelphia, 1907, Ch. I.)
THE OLD REGIME IX VIRGINIA. 87
remained unchanged, in spite of these tremendous
innovations, save in so far as by the progressive
subdivision of ownership in slaves and lands due to
the development of population, and by the cessation
of slave importations, and by the going forth of sons
and daughters from the river and tidewater sections
to settle new regions, the aristocratic power was
diluted and dissipated. But the old governmental
forces still predominated; the English influences
continued to prevail ; and African slavery persisted.
The significant characteristics of personal honor, of
respect for woman, of reverence for religion, of
individual courtesy, of consideration for the weak
and the helpless, and of passionate devotion to the
right of local self government, to ''the little pla-
toon," which Mr. Burke characterizes as the very
beginning of constitutional freedom, survived what
seemed to be a mighty overthrow of essential con-
ditions. Upon these things, and upon the continu-
ance of the rural life, and of the institution of slav-
ery, the old regime was founded, and so continued.
Slavery and the Old Regime.
The preamble to the first state constitution of
Virginia, adopted on the 29th of June, 1776, recited
that the king of Great Britain had, among other
outrages, prompted ''our negroes to rise in arms
among us, those very negroes whom by an inhuman
use of his prerogative he had refused us permission
to exclude by law"; and Jefferson sought to write
the same idea into the Declaration of Independence,
but was prevented. Virginia soon thereafter pro-
hibited the importation of slaves into her borders,
and a number of futile efforts were attempted in
the General Assembly to procure the abolition of
slavery as a social institution. With its persistence
88 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
and diffusion the aristocratic form and significance
of government continued; and it was not until the
constitutional convention of 1829-30, which was
called to amend the state constitution of 1776, with
especial reference to the basis of legislative repre-
sentation, that the irrepressible conflict between
slaveholder and non-slaveholder in the common-
wealth began. The question that the convention
was required to settle was whether the basis of rep-
resentation should be white, or what was known as
that of the Federal numbers, namely, two-fifths
slave and three-fifths white. The advocates of either
side were so evenly divided in the convention upon
this fundamental issue as to be unable to determine
it decisively for one plan or the other ; and the vexed
question was only disposed of by a compromise
which gave the victory to neither. The old regime
opposed the calling of the convention, and made a
desperate resistance in it to the proposed change,
anticipating from its possible decision, and with no
unreasonable apprehension, a destruction of society
as it was organized, and a consequent loss of polit-
ical power. But with the compromise adjustment of
the most serious issue before the convention, slavery
still continued to exert its potent influence as a
political factor; and the government remained
appointive in the selection of all officials, save mem-
bers of the General Assembly, through the General
Assembly itself; and thus hardly less aristocratic
than it had been before. The governor, the judges
and most of the local officials were elected by the
legislature, in which, in spite of the change in the
basis of representation, the aristocratic element,
illustrating the aristocratic talent, continued to con-
trol; and it was not until the convention of 1850, in
the decade preceding that of the final destruction
THE OLD REGIME IX VIRGINIA. 89
of slavery, that the people were permitted to
vote directly for the officials who conducted their
government.
It may not be amiss to say here, without going
into the merits and demerits of slavery as a social,
economic and political institution, that there were
many men and women of the old regime in Vir-
ginia who would have been glad to procure its aboli-
tion, but who were confronted always with a realiza-
tion of the inevitable consequences of such a step,
and were likewise unable to find a way. They saw"
in emancipation, in whatever manner, the destruc-
tion of vast accumulated wealth, and the consequent
loss of individual power, both social and political.
They saw in it the inability of the land owner to
control and direct the labor without which his fer-
tile acres were valueless. They saw in it the de-
struction of the existing social order that had been
conserved with moderation and self-restraint, from
the very beginning of that order. They saw in it,
upon the testimony of recorded human experience,
the impossibility of the two races, one naturally
inferior to the other, living together in the same
country upon a plane of either social or political
equality. They were staggered at the contempla-
tion of the question. Jefferson procured the enact-
ment of a statute providing for the emancipation of
the slave by his owner, but with the significant pro-
vision that he must get out of the commonwealth
within a year thereafter. Jefferson, John Randolph
of Roanoke, Gen. Robert E. Lee, and others of the
old regime, provided in the testamentay dispositions
of their estates, or otherwise, for the emancipa-
tion of their slaves, ^ut slavery persisted, be-
cause it was so closely a part of the mother society
in which it had been impregnated and with whose
90 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
life it was so inevitably and inseparably bound up,
that it could only be ripped out, as it was ripped
out at last, untimely, and by the operation called
"Caesarian"; and it continued, too, because the
slave-owners resented the injustice of any outside
interference with it as violative of the constitutional
compact that had recognized it from the beginning
of the government.
In the meantime the social life of the common-
wealth continued to reflect, though with diminished
luxury and waning physical splendor, that of the
heyday of the colony. The slave-holding descend-
ants of the river planters, increasing in numbers,
gradually subdivided the lands and negroes, or set-
tled newer portions of the state; and continued the
rural existence of their forefathers, though in a
more modest fashion. To the physical activities
which the men of the colony had exercised they now
added the more disciplinary one, consequent upon
their experience of war, of a highly organized state
militia, in which the offices of command were gen-
erally apportioned among the privileged class, and
out of which grew a citizen soldiery that proved
itself in a marked degree efficient in all wars subse-
quent to that of the Revolution.
The Home Circle.
In the home circle after the Revolution, the earlier
elegancies and refinements of the colonial household,
fostered by a more or less exclusive social inter-
course, by habitual association with earlier and con-
temporaneous English influences, and by the pos-
session of ample wealth, continued unchanged, save
in the measure of their exercise. The mistress of
the house was still the presiding genius of the plan-
tation and of the slave population, whose food, cloth-
THE OLD REGIME IX VIRGINIA. 91
ing and medicines she superintended, and whose
burdens of sickness, sorrow and old age she alle-
viated with her personal presence and attention, as
her colonial grandmothers and great-grandmothers
had done before her among greater acres and more
numerous slaves. The daughters of the house grew
up with a vivid sense of their future responsibilities
as mistresses ; and were generally liberally educated
in literature and the domestic arts in their own
homes, or amid home surroundings. Mothers and
daughters alike, under the benign influences of the
respectful consideration and tender regard which
they received at the hands of their husbands, sons
and brothers, and all the men of their rank and sta-
tion, illustrated in their highest type the courage,
the self-reliance, the virtue and the womanliness,
which are the sex's noblest and most beautiful
ornaments. J
Education up to the time of the War between the
States remained characteristic of the social and
political environment. The sons of the privileged
class had constituted a large majority of the stu-
dents of William and Mary College since its founda-
tion in 1692; and the catalogues of the college con-
stitute a bede-roll of the names of the great planters
and slave owners. From the time of its establish-
ment in 1825 by Mr. Jefferson, down to 1860, the
University of Virginia, conspicuously democratic in
its organization and in the avowed purpose of its
foundation, and nominally the apex of a state sys-
tem of popular education, remained, nevertheless, in
its administration, an educational institution scarcely
less aristocratic in its character than was Oxford
itself, while the whole subordinate system, consist-
ing for the most part of classical schools and col-
leges conducted largely by private enterprise, was
92 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
by no means democratic in the sense that it fur-
nished free opportunity of instruction to the masses.
But withal, as Disraeli said of the English Con-
stitution, that "within its dominion power was a
privilege within the reach of all who struggled to
attain it," it was the boast of the privileged class
in Virginia that no youth of parts, without influence
or fortune, need suffer for the lack of educational
advantages, since his merits were always recognized
and he was aided in his ambition by those who were
powerful to aid. This condition, however, was not
an acceptable one to those who constituted the bene-
ficiary class; and it is significant that there was no
more potent agency in arousing the temper of the
non-slave-holders' section of the Union against slav-
ery, in the decade prior to 1860, than a published
work by a man of this class, which presented with
tremendous effect, though often with savage vin-
dictiveness and unfounded assertion, the evil of
slavery in its denial of opportunity to those who
were not the owners of slaves.
Characteristics of the Men and Women of the Old Regime.
As a natural result of the social and political
fabric constituting the old regime in Virginia, its
energies continued to be largely expended in the
study and practice of politics and of government.
Men sought the professional careers which prom-
ised either political or social preferment; and what
are now called the mechanic and industrial arts
were almost unknown to those who spent their lives
upon the soil, which produced their prominence and
power. Literature, save of a political or forensic
character, had comparatively little of either root or
blossom ; and the favorite profession of the law was
MARTHA WASHINGTON.
THE OLD REGIME IX VIRGINIA. 93
thus especially attractive, because it was the step-
ping-stone to the higher profession of politics.
But of the accomplishments of the old regime in
this, its chosen field, the record, full to overflowing,
is perhaps unparalleled in the pages of modern
history. The men of the old regime in Virginia
founded a colony which was the cradle of the Bepub-
lic. They formulated and established the first writ-
ten constitution of republican government known to
the world. They were the largest factors in estab-
lishing the independence of the American colonies,
and in determining the character and tendencies of
their national association as states. They con-
ducted and administered the national government
from its inception through its earlier career, enact-
ing its legislation, interpreting its laws, and direct-
ing their execution; they furnished the country's
greatest leaders in war; they opened up the North-
west Territory, which they had bestowed upon the
national government in the most splendid and unself-
ish gift of which record is made in political history ;
they settled the valley of the Mississippi Eiver, and
the great Southwest, and added the Louisiana Ter-
ritory and Texas to the Union; and they led the
armies of their section with unsurpassed courage
and unexcelled ability in the most tremendous con-
flict of modern times, and against overwhelming
odds.
In the social life they developed and exemplified
in a new country and amid adverse conditions the
refined and yet vigorous qualities of an old world
civilization that was the culmination of the growth
of a thousand years; and they kept, with all its
elegancies and refinements, the sturdiness and noble
independence of thought and conduct which are not
always and everywhere their accompaniments.
94 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
They bore themselves with the gentleness and kind-
liness, which have always illustrated the birth and
breeding of long and aristocratic descent, towards
those who, in the economy of their society, were
their inferiors; and they exercised towards their
slaves, with singularly few exceptions, a tenderness
of treatment that has remained incomprehensible to
the alien or hostile mind.
Fading, towards the end, in the glowing colors of
its earlier baronial splendor, yet tenacious to the
last of its ingrained principles and fundamental tra-
ditions, the old regime was throughout its existence
wholly lacking in that effeminacy which, in the
aristocratic circles of the ancien regime of France,
made life at last little more than a graceful parade
of drawing-room puppets, exhibiting themselves
according to established rules and recognized
models, with a self-consciousness that emphasized its
shallowness.
These Virginians possessed the robust and virile
characteristics of earnestness and of unbending inde-
pendence, and such capacity of genuine enjoyment
as is natural to a happy existence in the open air
and the sunshine. The career of the courtier or of
the fickle follower of fashion had no place at any
time in their existence. To them duty appealed as
one of the most insistent of human virtues, and the
sense of responsibility for their conduct and bear-
ing in the positions which they filled was commen-
surate with their lofty personal, and intellectual in-
tegrity. Virtue, unselfishness, domesticity, courage,
dignity, were the qualities of the women of the col-
ony and the commonwealth. "That chastity of
honor which felt a stain like a wound," love of per-
sonal and civil liberty, love of home, a faith in cour-
age and truth as constituting the foundations of
DOLLY MADISON.
THE OLD REGIME IN VIRGINIA. 95
character, were the distinguishing marks of the men
of the old regime. In both women and men, un-
touched as they were by infusion of the blood of any
alien race, and whose proud boast was that they
sprung immaculate from the people of the Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, and who remained
uncorrupted by the arrogant presence and the gilded
assumptions of any nouveaux riches, and uninflu-
enced by new standards of ethics or of aspirations,
burned and glowed, above all other fervors the
splendid fire of a passionate devotion to Virginia.
The old regime perished utterly with the destruc-
tion, in 1861-1865, of the social fabric upon which
it was founded; and the passing of it was such a
death as, in spite of time-servers and sycophants,
made a mighty hiatus in civilization. A social order
perished with it, such as the world is not likely to
see again, nor as the envy and malignity of its ene-
mies will ever cease to decry. But the ultimate
prevalence of truth shall surely write its true story
in the end.
It has been not inaptly said that the processes and
results of the War between the States were analogous
to those through which democratic Athens imposed
popular government upon the aristocratic cities of
Greece, which she subdued to her sway ; and it is, at
all events, certain that with the conclusion of the
war came the elimination of aristocratic institu-
tions from America.
Yet the record shall prove beyond cavil for the
ultimate consideration of posterity that the regime
which had given to the people of Virginia in colony
and commonwealth a wise, economical, patriotic,
honest, conservative and constitutional government,
and had evolved a social system that in the character
of ita membership has been unexcelled for virtue,
96 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
integrity and ability in the story of modern civili-
zation, may well be claimed to have accomplished
larger and more significant results for human-
ity than are to be discovered in a careful study
of the histories of many of the most self-vaunting
democracies.
Of the men and women of the old regime it may
be said, beyond gainsaying or refutation, that they
observed fidelity, they respected law, and they upheld
freedom, civil and religious, according to the spirit
of the great charters that were intended to perpetu-
ate both; while in all that constitutes the greatness
of great states they made Virginia super-eminent
above her contemporary civil communities, and
at the very least the equal of any others that have
heretofore existed upon the face of the whole earth.
BIBLIOGRAPHY — Bruce, Philip A.: Social Life in Virginia in the
Seventeenth Century (1907) and Eobert E. Lee (1907); Hayden,
Horace E.: Virginia Genealogies; Helper, Hinton A.: The Impend-
ing Crisis; Keith, Charles P.: The Ancestry of Benjamin Harrison
(1892); Lunt, George: Origin of the Late War (1866); Page, Thomaa
Nelson: The Old South (1892); Shaler, N. S.: Nature and Man in
America (1891); The Journal of Philip Vickers Fithian; The Jour-
nal of a Young Lady of Virginia; Virginia Historical Magasine;
William and Mary College Quarterly; Debates of the Virginia Con-
vention of 1829-30.
AEMISTEAD C. GORDON,
Rector of the University of Virginia; author of Congressional
Currency; A Virginian of the Old School; etc.
PART II.
THE RACIAL ELEMENTS IN
THE SOUTH
CHAPTER I.
THE ENGLISH IN THE SOUTH.
I. COLONIAL.
Seventeenth Century.
HE history of the English people in the
South, as well as in America, begins with
the settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, in
1607, of one hundred and forty-three men
who came in three small ships sent out by
a London mercantile company under Captain Chris-
topher Newport. Over half of these men were of
good blood ; the rest were, for the most part, a thrift-
less set of adventurers. But under capable leaders
like Captain John Smith, Lord Delaware, Sir
Thomas Dale and Sir Thomas Gates, the colonists,
reinforced by successive immigrations, steadily
built up new plantations and a prosperous trade.
By 1619 the colony of Virginia had become, in part
at least, a democracy, for in that year an assembly
of representatives from the various plantations was
chosen to sit with the Governor's Council and to
have a voice in making the laws. This same year
is also memorable because of the landing of a Dutch
man-of-war with twenty negro slaves aboard, who
Vol. 10--7 97
98 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
were sold to the colonists. This was the insignificant
beginning of radical changes in the economic and
social conditions of the English race in the southern
part of North America.
In 1624 Virginia became a royal province and
remained such, with variations to suit the Common-
wealth period in England, until the American Revo-
lution. During the quarrel between the Eoyalists
and the Puritans in the mother country, ending in
civil war and the Protectorate, Virginia became a
refuge for large numbers of English Cavaliers. So
great, indeed, was this Cavalier influx that between
1650 and 1670 the population of Virginia increased
from 15,000 to 40,000. The population of the colony,
purely English except for an infusion of Huguenot
blood through DeEichebourg's settlement in 1699,
had by the beginning of the Eighteenth century
reached 100,000, of whom 40,000 were negroes ; agri-
culture had steadily prospered, a college had been
founded (1693) at Williamsburg, the new capital,
and "the germ of popular government had grown
into an established system, jealously watched by the
colonies."
Next in time and historical importance as an Eng-
lish colony in the South is Maryland, topographic-
ally similar to Virginia and, like Virginia, settled
by colonists direct from England. With Leonard
Calvert, brother of Cecilius Calvert, Lord Balti-
more, who had a royal charter for the region be-
tween the Potomac Eiver and the southern boundary
of the Plymouth Colony, came two hundred colonists.
These settled near the mouth of the Potomac,
naming the place St. Mary's. Of the two hundred
Englishmen twenty were " gentlemen" and the
others laborers and mechanics; some of them were
Protestants, but probably a large majority were
Roman Catholics, the faith of Baltimore, one of
THE ENGLISH IN THE SOUTH. 99
whose motives in seeking the new world had been
to escape religious persecution. The Virginians, as
might be supposed, objected to the proximity of
rival colonists, partly on religious, but mainly on
industrial grounds, for the followers of Calvert pro-
posed to cultivate tobacco, Virginia's chief product.
Baltimore's colonists were, for the most part,
thoroughly capable men, thrifty, religiously toler-
ant, and friendly towards the Indians. The relig-
ious tolerance of Maryland, indeed, attracted from
various lands those who were suffering for their
faith, especially Quakers and Catholics ; but in 1691,
when Maryland became a royal province, the Church
of England was established, and thereafter dissent-
ers were merely tolerated while Catholics were ac-
tually punished. In the main, however, Maryland
was more tolerant to the various sects than her
southern neighbor. While she had come to resemble
Virginia in government and society, having an agri-
cultural population with tendencies toward a landed
aristocracy, this resemblance did not go very deep,
for the population of Maryland lacked both creedal
and social homogeneity. The slave system in Mary-
land was modified by climate and by the nature of
the immigrants, a majority of whom were indus-
trious men of moderate means without Cavalier in-
stincts ; landed estates were therefore smaller, there
was a greater variety of industries, and there was
more free labor. This latter condition meant the
existence of a class between the large landowner and
the manual laborer, a class very small in Virginia.
By the end of the Seventeenth century the popula-
tion, almost entirely English, was about 35,000, one-
third of whom were negroes.
The earliest permanent settlement in that rather
vague region lying between Virginia and Spanish
Florida was made in 1653 by Roger Greene and a
100 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
band of Dissenters from Virginia, between the
Chowan and Boanoke rivers, and named Albemarle.
Following Greene's colony came many other Vir-
ginians, impelled partly by love of adventure and
partly by a desire for religious freedom. In 1664
Sir John Yeamans, a wealthy planter of Cavalier
ancestry, brought a number of West Indian colo-
nists of English origin and settled on the Cape Fear
Eiver, the district soon becoming known as Claren-
don. Around these two centres, Albemarle in the
north and Clarendon in the south, may be traced the
beginnings of the present states of North and South
Carolina. The real beginning of the English occu-
pation of this region, however, was the granting by
Charles II., in 1663, of the land to certain of his
favorites as Lords Proprietors.
During the administration of Governor Stephens
immigrants of English race were attracted from the
Bermudas, Bahamas, New England and Virginia,
some of whom were unfit material. There followed
a period of unrest in the Albemarle Colony during
which William Sayle, a Puritan from Bermuda,
began building a village at the junction of the
Ashley and Cooper rivers which developed into the
present city of Charleston. Thus by 1670 there were
three settlements of English-speaking people in the
Carolinas : Albemarle on the Virginia border, Clar-
endon on Cape Fear Eiver, and the Ashley Eiver
( Charleston ) settlement.
For the next two decades the northern colony of
Albemarle was neglected by the proprietaries as
being disorderly and generally less promising than
the two southern colonies, which were substantially
and regularly aided by the English Lords Propri-
etors. In 1691 the two colonies were united into one
province, religious toleration prevailed, and mate-
rial prosperity followed. Perhaps even more than
THE ENGLISH IN THE SOUTH. 101
Virginia and Maryland the Carolinas illustrate the
principle of local self-government. "Nowhere,"
says Thwaites, "does the innate determination of
the Anglo-Saxon to control his own political des-
tiny more strikingly appear."
Eighteenth Century.
In 1733 James Oglethorpe, a member of Parlia-
ment and a former army officer, brought over a com-
pany of settlers chosen from thirty-five families
carefully selected, and founded the city of Savan-
nah. The new colony, nominally occupying the old
Carolina claim between the Savannah and St. John's
rivers, was to be "an asylum for the oppressed,"
where the imprisoned debtors of England might
have a fresh start and where the religiously perse-
cuted might be free. By the year 1742 the English
under Oglethorpe had completely triumphed over
their Spanish neighbors to the south and west.
After Oglethorpe returned to England in 1743 a
period of discontent among the English element in
the population followed, though the Germans and
Scotch, who had come over some years before in
considerable numbers, were satisfied and thrifty. In
1752 Georgia became a royal province, somewhat
resembling Virginia in the prevalence of plantation
over town life, though colonial Georgia was essen-
tially a frontier community.
The history of the Southern colonies from the be-
ginning of the Eighteenth century to the Eevolution
is mostly a series of contests between legislative
assemblies and royal governors, and between the
adherents of the Established Church and the dis-
senters, revealing the liberty-loving Anglo-Saxon.
There were, moreover, frequent local quarrels, often
of a political nature, — for the old Southerner was
a born politician, — there were Indian wars and
102 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
forays against the French and Spanish, traditional
enemies of their ancestors, and there were disputes
with England about trade regulations. In spite of
all these, however, the growth in population was
steady ; there was a fairly continuous stream of im-
migration from England and the continent of Eu-
rope. In the South the English population was
recruited from other races even more than in early
New England. To trace this English element in the
population of the South and to outline some of its
most important achievements in the building of the
American Nation is the main purpose of this sketch.
Until the end of the Seventeenth century the pop-
ulation of Tidewater Virginia (the cradle of the
nation) was almost purely English. There was, in-
deed, at the very beginning of the Eighteenth cen-
tury a slight infusion of French blood from the
Huguenot immigration, but this hardly counted. The
native English element in Virginia was made up of
three classes: the gentry or upper class, descended
in the main from the Cavaliers who came over in
large numbers from 1649 to 1670, though it must
be remembered that the term ''Cavalier" repre-
sented a political rather than a social distinction;
the middle class of small farmers and merchants;
and the large class of indentured white servants
varying all the way from political refugees to kid-
napped paupers and convicts. Many of this last
class, commonly known as " redemptioners, ' ' rose
by industry and talent to be owners of plantations
or overseers on large estates, but the leading fam-
ilies of Virginia and Maryland, as well as the repre-
sentative families of New England, "were not de-
scended from convicts or from indented servants of
any sort."
The Carolinas were peopled very largely from
Virginia. This is notably true of North Carolina,
THE ENGLISH IN THE SOUTH. 103
which grew out of the original Albemarle Colony.
Many of the early settlers of North Carolina be-
longed to the shiftless and discontented class of
whites who from time to time emigrated into the
frontier regions south of Virginia. In fact, North
Carolina soon became a home for the honorable poor
of Virginia as well as a refuge for criminals of the
indentured servant class. From this lower element
in the English population of the colonies came the
1 'poor white trash," which, scattered over the South
to-day, particularly in the wilder regions of coun-
try, continue shiftless and degenerate. These poor
whites were gradually pushed southwestward by the
more orderly and thrifty settlers, then westward,
passing through Tennessee on towards Arkansas
and southern Missouri; another migration went to
Georgia and the Gulf states, while others remained
on the borders of South Carolina and in the moun-
tains of western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee
and Kentucky.
While the population of North Carolina was es-
sentially homogeneous * — the German and Scotch-
Irish element being relatively small, — South Caro-
lina was far more cosmopolitan. Although many
Cavaliers came to the two settlements on the Cape
Fear and Ashley rivers, the Huguenots, the English
dissenters, the Welsh and the Scotch Presbyterians
made the complexion of South Carolina far more
Puritan than that of Virginia. About one-fifth of
the people belonged to the Established Church, and
the unit of legislative representation was the parish,
of as purely English origin as the Virginia county
unit. The population of South Carolina was pre-
dominantly urban, while that of Virginia was pre-
vailingly rural. Like Virginia, South Carolina had
constant communication with England; this caused
a constant influx of English immigrants and made
104 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
the civilization essentially English from Massachu-
setts to Florida, though the strip was nowhere more
than 150 miles wide. Moreover, it was the custom,
both in Virginia and in South Carolina, for wealthy
planters to send their children to England or to the
Continent to be educated. It accordingly happened
that the bonds between the Southern English col-
onies and the mother country were even closer than
those between the Northern colonies and England.
Georgia was first peopled direct from England,
but soon German Protestants and Scotch Highland-
ers came over in large numbers ; these, together with
some New England Puritans who founded the town
of Sunbury, somewhat modified the economic and
religious conditions of the colony. By 1770 the pop-
ulation of Georgia was 50,000, half of whom were
negroes. Besides the large planters gathered about
Savannah — for Georgia's landed aristocracy was
mostly in that region — there were in the western
and northern parts large numbers of low whites who
had come across from Virginia and the Carolinas— •
the upper and lower English strata.
From the preceding sketch it is evident that the
English Cavalier element in the population of the
colonial South was, with few exceptions, limited to
the shores of Chesapeake Bay; that a majority of
the people in Maryland were Puritans ; that Puritan
influence controlled South Carolina; that descend-
ants of redemptioners or indentured servants of one
condition or another pushed westward and south-
westward. Tidewater Virginia from the Chesa-
peake to the Blue Ridge was English, and much of
the social and political renown of colonial and na-
tional Virginia is the achievement of men of prom-
inent English ancestry. The march westward and
southward of the English of the three classes
already defined must now be followed.
THE ENGLISH IN THE SOUTH. 105
In 1716 Governor Spottswood of Virginia made
an expedition across the Blue Eidge. As yet no one
from eastern Virginia had penetrated into the
Shenandoah Valley. Spottswood formally took pos-
session of this region in the name of the English
King, and then returned to Williamsburg. Nothing
came of this desire to occupy the region beyond the
mountains until the administration of Governor
Gooch, like Spottswood a Scotchman, who about 1730
began to welcome to the Shenandoah Valley two
movements of Scotch-Irish, one from Pennsylvania
and the other from their landing place, Charleston,
S. C. These sturdy settlers, mostly descended from
prosperous yeomen and artisans of the Presbyterian
faith, came originally from Ulster, Ireland, where,
over a century before, James I. had formed a colony
of North English and Scotch Protestants. The
Scotch-Irish were therefore part English, the real
Irish admixture being very slight. These Scotch-
English spread in successive immigrations over
what is now West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennes-
see. They were democratic in political, social and
religious ideals as opposed to the Cavalier, Epis-
copal and aristocratic ideals of the purely English
society of eastern Virginia.
There were, however, a few English in the north-
ern end of the Shenandoah Valley, descended from
settlers in the region originally held under a pro-
prietary claim by Lord Culpepper and owned later
by Lord Fairfax. From this colony near the present
town of Winchester the English spread down the
Shenandoah Valley. Young George Washington was
engaged by Fairfax to survey his frontier estates.
This was the beginning of the westward advance of
the English which was to bring on the conflict be-
tween the English and the French for the possession
of the Great West.
106 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
As a result of the French and Indian War, the
ostensible object of which was the Ohio country,
England came to own (1763) all the French posses-
sions east of the Mississippi Eiver except the little
tract of land near the mouth of the river on which
was the town of New Orleans. About the same time
the English acquired the two provinces of Florida
from the Spanish in exchange for Havana ; Georgia
was enlarged south to St. Mary's Eiver and west
to the Mississippi. The other Southern colonies,
nominally extending to that river, had an abundance
of territory for establishing new settlements. Set-
tlers began to move westward into the present
region of Kentucky and eastern Tennessee. Vir-
ginia owned the Kentucky territory, North Carolina
owned Tennessee ; South Carolina ceded her narrow
western strip of land to the national government in
1787. This was the territorial situation when the
new republic began its independent history in 1789.
Meanwhile immigration into the western and
southwestern country steadily increased. The land-
hunger of the Saxon, the passion for winning the
West, drove these Anglo-Americans beyond moun-
tain barriers into the heart of the forests. Ken-
tucky was but a continuation of Virginia under
pioneer conditions. After the first settlements had
been made by explorers from Virginia and North
Carolina, a strong tide of immigration set in from
these two states. In 1780 and the following years
at least five thousand souls per annum must have
migrated from eastern Virginia into Kentucky and
at the close of the Revolution many old soldiers
sought new homes in this western frontier. During
the last two decades of the Eighteenth century the
English population beyond the Alleghanies grew
enormously. By the census of 1790 Kentucky's
THE ENGLISH IN THE SOUTH. 10?
white population was nearly 62,000, and it was of
almost pure English ancestry.
Tennessee was peopled in the main by North Car-
olinians, the territory being a part of North Car-
olina until 1790, when it was ceded to the general
government. The population was somewhat more
mixed than that of Kentucky, men of Scotch and
Huguenot ancestry, such as James Robertson and
John Sevier, being leaders among the early perma-
nent settlers. Kentucky had been settled more
largely from Virginia, while Tennessee was a con-
tinuation of the now more varied population of
North Carolina.
Thus far westward and southwestward had the
English race pushed itself at the beginning of our
national existence. South and west of the territory
already discussed lay the extensive regions under
Spanish and French influence, from which the
present states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida,
Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Texas and Okla-
homa were carved. Into this great territory the
tide of immigration between 1800 and 1840 flowed
strong and steady down the Mississippi, through
the wilderness and across the mountains from the
northeast. The census reports of 1820 and 1830
show an enormous increase of settlers from adjoin-
ing states, sons and daughters of the restless Saxon,
now thoroughly Americanized, but impelled by the
old Elizabethan thirst for adventure and hunger
for fresh lands. It is the same spirit that moved
Walter Raleigh to sink several fortunes in coloniz-
ing expeditions westward and Francis Bacon to
write an essay on Plantations.
n. NATIONAL.
"With the acquisition of the great Louisiana ter-
ritory from France in 1803 and the annexation of
108 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
Texas in 1845 the English race owned North Amer-
ica; the rest is simply the question of internal divi-
sion and development. The achievements of the
English in the South in the building of the present
American Nation must now be outlined.
The history of the South is, of course, very largely
a history of the English race in the South. No other
part of the United States is so homogeneous in its
population or more tenacious of ancestral traditions.
The predominant English society of the colonial
days in the Atlantic states continued, with slight
modifications caused by economic and political
changes, far into the Nineteenth century. The dis-
tinctive society of the old South was seen at its best
in Virginia and South Carolina, the two colonies
most closely bound to the mother country by indus-
trial and social intercourse. In Virginia, and to a
somewhat less extent in Maryland, there was a large
class of hereditary landowners with social distinc-
tion and an abundance of leisure, with political in-
fluence and high standards of intelligence. Life
was rural and the plantation was the social unit;
tobacco was the main crop, cultivated by slave labor
under an overseer who belonged to a lower social
order than the owner of the estate. The center of
the plantation was the mansion, about which clus-
tered various outhouses in which were carried on
such industries as were necessary for the mainte-
nance of an extensive household. At a convenient
distance were the negro quarters, forming on large
estates a small village community of dependants.
Thus the plantation was, in a way, a combination
of the English village and the factory. The court-
house was the centre of political activity in the
county and not of trade. There was constant social
communication between plantations ; hospitality was
lavish ; sports like those of the English country gen-
THE ENGLISH IN THE SOUTH. 109
try, such as fox-hunting and horse-racing, for in-
stance, varied the monotony of country life. The
relations between master and slave were, in Virginia
at least, kindly. There were, of course, small
planters with less pretentious households, and there
were, in Maryland, North Carolina and Georgia,
yeoman farmers, with some free labor; but in gen-
eral, plantation life in the colonial and early national
South suggests the mediaeval manor of rural Eng-
land.
In South Carolina the centre of social life was
the city. Here the rice-planter or indigo-planter
lived, while his plantation was worked by a band of
slaves under an overseer often harsh and even cruel.
The owner of the estate was an absentee lord who
lived in the city and who occasionally visited his
rice-fields. Indeed, many English merchants lived
in Charleston, dividing their time between the colony
and England. The climate and topography of South
Carolina did not make for rural residence as in the
more northern Southern colonies. Both Virginia
and South Carolina, however, ''depended for the
amenities, and even in some measure for the neces-
saries, of life on intercourse with the mother
country." In these two colonies the affection for
British institutions and customs was doubtless
stronger than in any of the others.
How nearly did this old Southern society resemble
that of rural England? There was, as Doyle re-
marks in his English Colonies in America, a resem-
blance in tastes and habits. There was a sort of
aristocracy, and there was temperamentally the
same general political, economic and religious atti-
tude ; but there were no actual lords and knights of
the shire, there was no village of the English type,
there was no rigid ecclesiastical hierarchy with pre-
* Doyle: Englith Colonies in America.
110 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
scriptive rights, and there was little free labor. It
was, indeed, an English society in the new western
world, but an English society with a difference.
Pioneer conditions are great levelers, and Southern
society with all its old-world traditions was, in the
main, democratic. Its seeming exclusiveness was in
part due to its remoteness from the industrial cur-
rents of the world; its very provincialism was a
guarantee of simplicity and a source of infinite
charm.
Where individualism is so highly developed, it is
almost impossible to effect large unity of action.
This was true with the Southern colonies. Local
pride was strong, and local pride together with the
Anglo-Saxon love of self-government developed
later into the doctrine of State Rights. There could
be no political centralization as in modern Eng-
land. Even in North Carolina, where economic lim-
itations made white labor more profitable and where
the sentiments of an aristocracy were wanting, the
same opposition or indifference to union prevailed.
This decentralizing tendency, which ultimately re-
sulted in the withdrawal of the South from the
Union, was itself an English inheritance.
The word English is here used in a broad sense,
be it remembered ; for the Scotch- Irish, who settled
western Virginia, western North and South Caro-
lina, northeastern Tennessee and parts of Kentucky,
were part English, as has already been pointed out.
These people early coalesced with the pure English
element and in the march westward exerted a con-
trolling influence. Next to the English, the Scotch-
Irish form the most virile and important race con-
tribution of the old world to the new. They helped
to democratize church and state and, in general, to
emphasize individual and communal freedom. They
were distributed along the frontiers of all the col-
THE ENGLISH IN THE SOUTH. Ill
onies, becoming in time the great amalgamating
race; they were intensely democratic and intensely
Protestant; they were, above all, men of action.
From this sturdy stock came many of the great
leaders'of opinion in the South from Andrew Jack-
son to John C. Calhoun and Stonewall Jackson.
The social life of slave-holding communities, as
typified in eastern Virginia, Maryland and South
Carolina, was, of course, quite different from that
of mountain regions and more western districts set-
tled by pioneers or by the descendants of indentured
immigrants. Here democratic conditions prevailed ;
the farms were small, there was no negro labor, no
direct communication with England and little leisure
either for social amenities or for intellectual or
aesthetic culture. From the mountain hut and the
frontier cabin went forth the man of action to build
new commonwealths or to cut highways westward
through the forest. Others, descendants of degen-
erate or of criminal ancestors, slothfully preferred
the security of mountain fastnesses, where they still
dwell, indifferent to the march of material and
mental progress.
But beyond the foothills of the Appalachians east
and west down the Mississippi Valley stretched a
vast, rich region occupied by the present ''Cotton
States" of the South. Most of these states came
from the old Spanish and French territory. During
the ten or twenty years following the passage of
the law against the foreign slave trade in 1808,
thousands of English-speaking men and women
migrated from Virginia and the Carolinas into this
fertile region for the purpose of raising cotton with
slave labor. Others came down the Mississippi from
Kentucky and Tennessee and more northern states.
From Georgia across through Texas the "Black
Belt" was being rapidly settled, the rich strip of
112 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
land and the valleys falling to the richer immigrants,
the sandy lowlands to the smaller farmers, and the
outlying regions, hilly and pine-covered, to the
"poor whites" who came in the wake of the more
prosperous, energetL folk. Considered socially the
population of the states of the lower South was, with
slight modifications due to French and Spanish pio-
neer settlements, divided into large and small plant-
ers, mechanics and tradesmen (few in number),
impecunious whites, and negro slaves — the classifi-
cation already mentioned as obtaining in Virginia
and the Carolinas. Thus by the end of the first
quarter of the Nineteenth century we find the lower
South or cotton states united racially, whether as
purely English or, speaking more inclusively, Brit-
ish, with the Atlantic and with the western states
of the southern group.
The English race has, then, given to the United
States its language, its form of society, and of gov-
ernment; has largely determined its form of relig-
ion, and has afforded opportunities for individual
development. In New England and the South the
impress of English custom has been most marked.
Because of the South 's adherence for so long to a
form of primitive industry, a primitive labor sys-
tem, and a patriarchal mode of life, New England
far outstripped her in industrial progress, in liter-
ary development, in educational advance, and in the
inventiveness and thrift of an essentially democratic
society. In the building of the nation, however, the
English race in the South has made at least three
important contributions: First, a social contribu-
tion ; for the charm and distinction of the society of
the older South have given to American history its
most romantic traditions, rich material for future
poem and story and drama. We have as yet hardly
begun to appreciate this inheritance from a van-
THE ENGLISH IN THE SOUTH. 113
ished society of purely English origin. To it we
shall in coming years go back hunting treasures for
the enrichment of our literature.
Second, an exploratory contribution. Just before
the Eevolutionary War 3everal exploring parties led
by Virginians of English descent had penetrated
into the west and northwest regions claimed by Vir-
ginia. The greatest of these leaders was George
Rogers Clark, who, from his new home in the Ken-
tucky territory, explored a part of the great North-
west region, defeating the British in several critical
battles, and winning the vast tract out of which sev-
eral states of the middle West have been formed.
Another pioneer hero was Andrew Lewis, whose
name is associated with Clark's in that important
border warfare against the Indians and the British.
Third, and more important still, a legislative con-
tribution. Two groups of statesmen in the South
have exercised a powerful influence in national af-
fairs— the Revolutionary group, centering in Vir-
ginia, from 1776 to about 1830 ; and the Lower South
group, between 1830 and 1860. The first were es-
sentially constructive, while the second were, in the
main, defenders of the established order of vested
rights against which the other sections of the coun-
try were protesting. Of the Southern men who
signed both the Declaration of Independence and
the Constitution a very large majority were of pure
English ancestry. These makers of our govern-
ment, from Washington to Marshall, were sprung
from the higher classes of colonial society. Their
forbears had come straight to the Virginia coast
from an atmosphere still colored with the fading
splendors of Elizabethan England. It was a great
group for achievement in war, in government, in
diplomacy. They were lords of the plantation, clever
debaters and forceful orators, resourceful execu-
Vol. 10—8
114 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
tives, f arseeing promoters, and several of them were
prophets. With the Saxon sense for individual and
economic freedom the wisest among them were
already troubled about the deadening slave system,
but they could see no way out of it. Later on in the
century it was a native Virginian who had moved
westward, Henry Clay, that tried to harmonize the
differing sections by successive compromises on this
vital question And still later it was a man of Eng-
lish blood, of humble Virginia ancestry, who as head
of the nation in the great crisis settled forever the
question which had given Jefferson and other great
Virginians such grave concern.
Looked at from various points of view that early
group of Southern nation-builders illustrates more
clearly the principles of constructive statesmanship
than any other group of Americans. We find there
the flower of the English race in the new world de-
veloped out of nearly two centuries of colonial cul-
ture. From this group came the majority of our
early Presidents, several of the ablest of our first
diplomatists, members of cabinets and of Congress,
and one supremely great jurist, John Marshall,
whose opinions with their background of ancient
English law, read in the light of the later develop-
ment of the United States, have a distinctively pro-
phetic element. In educational policies Thomas Jef-
ferson was a prophet ; indeed, we are just beginning
to realize in the South the farsighted wisdom of his
views of public education. Now these men, like the
Southern leaders of two or three decades later, as a
rule came into politics from a law office or from the
plantation where they had received administrative
training. It was their character and life more than
anything else, perhaps, that gave them leadership.
The old plantation life, with its hereditary owner-
ship of land after the order of English country
THE ENGLISH IN THE SOUTH. 115
gentry, starved out the educational and intellectual
rights of the landless whites — an evil for which we
are to-day trying to make amends to these belated
Elizabethans of the Southern mountains and pine-
barrens — but it did make forceful leaders, self-
dependent, aggressive, whose opinions were some-
times more logical than broadly true. And when,
towards the close of the first quarter of the century,
the power of this Eevolutionary group began to
wane, their followers, impelled by an English love
of expansion and a hunger for land and adventure,
carried their social and political ideals to the lower
undeveloped South. Through the following decades
up to the beginning of the War of Secession these
men of the lower South gave evidence of their insti-
tutional as well as blood kinship to the older leaders
of the upper South.
During these years a new set of Southern leaders
had come upon the scene, such men as Clay of Ken-
tucky, Calhoun and Butler of South Carolina, Will-
iam B. King and C. C. Clay of Alabama; Toombs,
Cobb and Stephens of Georgia, and Jefferson Davis
of Mississippi. Most of these new leaders claimed
English ancestry; others were of Scotch-Irish or
Welsh descent on one side of the house; now and
then a French name appears, as Soule of Louisiana.
These and other names figure prominently in the
list of cabinet officers, members of Congress, mem-
bers of the United States Supreme Court, and min-
isters to foreign courts. Of the nine Presidents
from the Southern states seven were of English
ancestry; and he who cares to study the names of
the men in the ascendancy at Washington in the
mid-Nineteenth century will find the English stock
from the Southern states largely shaping legislation
even as it did in the days of the great Virginia
group. All this ceased, of course, with the coming
116 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
of the great conflict about slavery. In the War of
Secession the South, true to its English instinct —
at least the lower South and its Eastern Virginia
ancestry — defended its conception of local rights,
fought for the old order and against the new. The
splendid heroism of the Southern actors in that
mighty drama, of whom Lee, a man of English race,
was chief, is the principal legacy of that time to this.
During the years of national prominence the pio-
neer impulse had not been wanting in the lower
South ; it was but a repetition of that restless Saxon
longing for new lands which drove Washington on
his early journeys westward, and which in the clos-
ing years of the Eighteenth century sent long trains
of emigrants across the Alleghanies and down the
Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Before the adven-
turous men of the lower South stretched the vast,
virtually unexplored regions to the west and south-
west, while to the south were the Latin-American
states with their reputed wealth, and to the south-
east the Florida peninsula, and not far beyond the
Island of Cuba. All the inherited race-tendencies
of the Southern people urged them to explore and
to possess these inviting lands. It was entirely nat-
ural, therefore, that they should try to annex Texas
and Cuba. They did annex Texas and they fought
Mexico, for both the annexation of Texas and the
Mexican War were mainly the doing of Southern
leaders. They did not annex Cuba; but when in
1898 President McKinley called for men to free
Cuba from the Spaniard, these same English-
descended Southerners, distant kinsmen of Kaleigh
and Nathaniel Bacon, such as Fitzhugh Lee and
Joseph Wheeler, promptly responded and chival-
rously succored an oppressed people.
The opening of the Golden Gate on the California
coast about the middle of the century invited still
THE ENGLISH IN THE SOUTH. 117
further westward the land- and gold-hungry men of
the South. On across Arkansas and Texas, follow-
ing in the tracks of Bowie and Travis and Crockett
and Houston made years before, went wagonload
after wagonload of emigrants. They opened the
way for a steady march of pioneers across the plains
bent on possessing a new promised land. Here they
met streams from the northeast and from the ad-
jacent west, and here the wandering New Englander
met his Southern kinsman and both made them-
selves at home. Thus, steadily the British peoples
of the South have made their way over all the
southwestern country. They have developed that
vast region into the territories of Arizona, New
Mexico, and the state of Oklahoma, once the lands
of a Spanish people. At last the imperial dreams
of the makers of Elizabethan land-granting charters
have been realized : the English colonies have indeed
stretched themselves "up into the land from sea
to sea."
BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Brown, A.: Genesis of the United States; Brown,
W. G. : The Lower South in Am. History; Bruce: Economic History
of Virginia; Channing: Town and County Government; Cooke: Vir-
ginia (and other state histories in American Commomvealths Series) ;
Doyle: English Colonies in America; Eggleston: Beginners of a
Nation; Fisher: Men, Women and Manners in Colonial Times; Fiske:
Old Virginia and Her Neighbors and Critical Period of American His-
tory; Hart: Formation of the Union and American History Told by
Contemporaries; Lodge: Short History of the English Colonies in
America; Neill: English Colonization of America; Osgood: American
Colonies in the Seventeenth Century; Roosevelt : The Winning of the
West; Thwaites: The Colonies (1492-1750); Tyler: English in Amer-
ica; Wilson: Division and Reunion; Winsor: Narrative and Critical
History; Publications of the Historical Societies of Virginia, Mary-
land, North Carolina and South Carolina.
JOHN CALVIN METCALF,
Professor of English, Richmond College.
118 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
CHAPTEB II.
THE FRENCH IN THE SOUTH.
History.
HE first Frenchmen that we see in what is
now the southern part of the United States
are the men whom the great Admiral
Coligny sent to Florida to found a colony
where the French Protestants might practice their
religion without being molested. The leader of the
expedition was Jean Eibaut, and on May 1, 1562,
his men landed from two ships at the mouth of a
river which they called May, and which is now the
St. John's in Florida. After taking possession of
the country in the name of the king of France
Eibaut continued his exploration, and on the coast
of South Carolina built Charlesfort. He then sailed
for France, leaving in the fort a small garrison
which soon quarreled among themselves, murdered
their commander and returned to Europe in a small
boat which they had built.
Meanwhile Coligny had fitted three ships to bring
relief to Eibaut 's colonists, and the expedition, com-
manded by Eene de Laudonniere, sailed from Havre
in April, 1564. They reached the mouth of the
Eiver of May or St. John's, and built a fort six
miles from the sea, which they named La Caroline.
The settlers, however, disagreed and neglected to
cultivate the soil, and were reduced to such misery
that Laudonniere was preparing to return to Eu-
rope, when in 1565 the famous buccaneer, John
Hawkins, arrived at La Caroline. He offered to
take back to France all the colonists, but Laudon-
niere did not accept his offer, and buying one of the
THE FRENCH IN THE SOUTH. 119
ships of Hawkins, decided to remain at his post.
Belief soon came from France with seven ships
under the command of Jean Ribaut, and the colony
might have prospered had it not been attacked by
the Spaniards. The latter considered that Florida
belonged to them by right of discovery and resolved
to destroy the French settlement. This was done in
September, 1565, by Pedro Menendez de Aviles, who
arrived off the coast of Florida five days after
Ribaut had reached La Caroline. The French fleet
was dispersed by a storm, the fort was captured, its
defenders were put to the sword, and Ribaut and
his shipwrecked followers were ruthlessly put to
death by Menendez. The Spanish commander had
spared the women and children in the fort, and
some of the French had succeeded in escaping. The
fact that the French colonists were Protestants
doubtless made Menendez more severe in his treat-
ment of them. In that age of religious intolerance
many crimes were committed in the name of the
religion of the gentle Christ. It is said that in 1568
Dominique de Gourges, a French Catholic nobleman,
fitted an expedition to avenge his countrymen, cap-
tured La Caroline and put to death the Spanish
garrison, "not as Spaniards, but as traitors, robbers
and murderers." Coligny had not succeeded any
better in Florida than he had done in Brazil in 1555.
French Huguenots.
The terrible religious wars of the Sixteenth cen-
tury came to an end when Henry of Navarre estab-
lished securely his power as king of France, and
granted, in 1598, the Edict of Nantes which gave
religious freedom to the Protestants. The latter
were attacked by Richelieu, during the reign of
Louis XIII., as a political party, but were not per-
secuted for their religion. Louis XIV., however, de-
120 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
stroyed the great work of his grandfather, Henry
IV., when he revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685.
A great many Protestants fled from France at that
time, and a considerable number had left their coun-
try before 1685, in order to escape from the vexa-
tions and even persecutions to which they were sub-
jected. From England many Huguenots came to
America, settling in the South, principally at
Charleston in South Carolina, although 700 estab-
lished, in 1700, a settlement in Virginia, at a place
which they called Manakinton, a short distance from
Richmond. They were given 10,000 acres on the
lands of the extinct Manakin tribe of Indians. Their
leader was the Marquis de la Muce. There were
also a few Huguenots who settled in Florida at that
time, and others in Maryland.
The descendants of the French Protestants in the
North and in the South of the present United States
were, many of them, distinguished men, such as
Francis Marion, Colonel Huger, and Legare, of
South Carolina; Marion, the gallant soldier of the
Revolution ; Huger, the devoted friend of Lafayette,
and Legare (French L'Egare), an eminent man of
letters and statesman. Many other distinguished
families in the South might be mentioned, in whose
veins flows the blood of the French Huguenots of
the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries. Indeed, in
regard to ability, the descendants of the French in
America rank very high, and Senator Lodge, quoted
by Mr. Rosengarten in his French Colonists and
Exiles in America, says: "If we add the French
and the French Huguenots together, we find that
the people of French blood exceed absolutely, in the
ability produced, all the other races represented in
Appleton's Encyclopedia of American Biography,
except the English and Scotch-Irish, and show a
i. Antoine Rigaud. 2. Benjamin La Trobe.
3. Marquis de Grouchy.
4. Rene de Laudonniere. 5. Charles Lallemand.
THE FKENCH IN THE SOUTH. 121
percentage in proportion to their total original im-
migration much higher than that of any other race. ' '
The Creoles of Louisiana.
The influence of the French Huguenots had been
considerable, but the refugees did not found in the
South any permanent large settlement. It was
French Catholics who established, in 1699, at the
present Ocean Springs, the colony of Louisiana,
which has exerted a great influence on the history
and the civilization of the United States. It was a
Frenchman, La Salle, who explored and named the
country watered by the great Mississippi and who
lost his life in an attempt to colonize Louisiana. It
was a French Canadian, Iberville, who, aided by his
brother Bienville, succeeded in colonizing the coun-
try named by La Salle for King Louis XIV. It was
Frenchmen and their sons who thought, in 1768, of
establishing a republic in New Orleans, after they
had expelled the Spanish governor imposed upon
them ; and when Galvez drove the British from West
Florida and took a glorious part in the war of the
American Eevolution, he had Louisianians of
French origin among his most valiant soldiers. The
Creoles of Louisiana, the descendants of the French
colonists, of pure white blood, have played such an
important part in the history of Louisiana that it
is impossible to relate that history without men-
tioning them. They fought under Jackson in 1814
and 1815 as well as under Galvez in 1779, 1780, and
1781, and when the great War between the States
broke out in 1861, one of the ablest and most chiv-
alric captains of the Confederacy was G. T. Beaure-
gard, a Creole of Louisiana.
Bossu, a French officer stationed in Louisiana in
1751, said: "One calls Creoles those who are born
of a Frenchman and a Frenchwoman or of a Euro-
122 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
pean woman. The Creoles, in general, are very
brave, tall and well made; they have many talents
for the arts and sciences; but as they cannot cul-
tivate them perfectly on account of the scarcity of
good teachers, the rich and sensible fathers do not
fail to send their children to France, as to the first
school in the world in all things. As to the sex that
has no other duty to perform but that of pleasing,
it is born here with that advantage and has no need
to go to seek the deceitful art in Europe."
Colonel Francisco Bouligny, in a memoir to the
Spanish government, said in 1776: "The Creoles
are of a healthy and robust temperament, capable
of the most violent exercises. Accustomed from
childhood to hunting, they pass entire days with
their feet in the water, without suffering the least
inconvenience. Their industry and diligence are not
less, because it is rare to see a father of a family
who does not have the best books about agriculture
and the exploitation of timber and lumber. There
are few houses of which the furniture has not been
made by the owners themselves, and men of means
do not disdain to pass entire days handling a plow,
in the mill, in the carpenter shop or the blacksmith
shop. In all other countries, the men who devote
themselves to cultivation of the fields are mere day-
laborers in general, and the owners of important
plantations disdain the knowledge and the details
of husbandry. In this country, on the contrary,
there is a noble and worthy pride, since the greatest
praise that can be given to a young man is to call
him a good planter, that is to say, a man who under-
stands the labors of the fields. The ladies them-
selves distinguish and praise the most intelligent
and the most diligent, a policy sufficiently strong to
make the country reach the highest perfection. The
Creoles are not satisfied with theory only, but with
THE FRENCH IN THE SOUTH. 123
daily practice, without having that rudeness which
is brought about generally by the heavy labors of
the fields. They leave the plow which they have
been handling for hours to offer their hands to a
lady to help her across the furrows that they them-
selves have opened. Foreigners admire the elegance
of their manners and the good sense with which they
reason on all subjects."
The French literature of Louisiana, the literature
of the Creoles, is interesting and important. It
began in 1779 with a short epic poem, and has con-
tinued to our day. Poems, dramas, histories, novels
have been written in Louisiana, of which some may
be compared with works written in France by
authors of great merit, and to preserve the French
language in the state a literary society, the Athe-
nee Louisianais, was established in 1876. There
is also in New Orleans a daily French paper,
I'Abeille de la Nouvelle-Orleans, founded in 1827, in
which are published the laws enacted by the legis-
lature and judicial advertisements. The Creoles of
Louisiana are greatly attached to the French lan-
guage and use it in their homes as a mother tongue,
although they know English also.
The French in the South.
In speaking of the French in the South we may
recall the fact that it was in Virginia that Cornwallis
surrendered his sword to Washington, who had
received the powerful aid of Lafayette, of Bocham-
beau, of French soldiers and French sailors. After
the War of the Revolution the South received the
visit, in 1797, of the Duke of Orleans, later King
Louis Philippe, and his brothers Beaujolais and
Montpensier, who resided in Louisiana for a short
time. In 1804 General Moreau, the victor of Hohen-
linden, was in New Orleans. General Humbert was
124 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
there also and took part in the battle of New Or-
leans, as well as many other Frenchmen who were
of great aid to Jackson by their military knowledge.
After Waterloo many officers of Napoleon left
France, either because they were exiled by the
Bourbons or feared their rule. A few escaped who
might have shared the fate of the heroic Ney had
they remained in France, and among them were
the brothers Charles and Henri Lallemand, Lef ebvre
Desnouettes, Grouchy and his two sons, and Clausel
and Rigaud. Joseph Bonaparte was in New Jersey,
and the Napoleonic exiles considered him their chief
in America. They were, most of them, without
means of subsistence, and they decided to form an
agricultural settlement. They obtained from Con-
gress a grant of four townships, each six miles
square, for the cultivation of the vine and olive on
the Tombigbee in the Mississippi Territory, near
Mobile. They gave the name Marengo to a county
and began the foundation of the town of Demopolis
which they soon abandoned. The agricultural en-
terprise of the officers of Napoleon was a failure,
for in their glorious wars in Europe they had had
little time to attend to the cultivation of the vine
and olive and were incompetent farmers. Their
attempt, however, is a curious incident in history,
and although they failed, their lot was not as un-
happy as that of their wonderful commander, who,
on the rock of St. Helena, had, as Victor Hugo
says, "only the picture of a child and the map of
the world."
Stranger than the settlement of "the vine and
olive" and still more unsuccessful was the colony
on the Trinity River in Texas, which Generals
Rigaud and Lallemand endeavored to found in 1818.
The Champ d'Asile of the French soldiers was in-
vaded by the Spanish garrison at San Antonio and
THE FRENCH IN THE SOUTH. 125
at La Bahia and had to retreat before overwhelm-
ing numbers. They took refuge at Galveston, where
Jean Lafitte had established himself after the battle
of New Orleans, in which he and his Baratarian
smugglers or pirates had rendered great services to
the Americans. Lafitte received kindly the unfor-
tunate companions of Napoleon and helped them to
go to New Orleans, where they were hospitably re-
ceived by the Creoles of Louisiana. The story of the
Napoleonic exiles in America has been admirably
told by Dr. Jesse S. Eeeves in the Johns Hopkins
Historical Studies (1905).
The Frenchman Lafitte and his pirates were
chased from Galveston and the Mexican Gulf by an
American ship. Louis Aury had also, shortly before
Lafitte, to surrender Amelia Island, near Galveston,
to American forces. French settlements in the
South, in the Nineteenth century, were not success-
ful, but the Frenchmen who have come to our South-
land, from the Seventeenth century to the Twentieth,
carried with them the admirable qualities of their
race: their sociability, their sense of the esthetic,
their chivalric courage; and their coming has been
a notable contribution to the civilization of the
United States. See THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA
(Vol. III.) ; also LOUISIANA'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE
LITERATURE OF THE UNITED STATES (Vol. VII.).
BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Baird, Charles W. : History of the Huguenot Emi-
gration to America; Fortier: Louisiana Studies, History of Louisiana;
Eeeves, Jesse S.: The Napoleonic Exiles in America, in Johns Hopkins
University Studies in History and Political Science (1905); Bosen-
garten, J. G.: French Colonists and Exiles in the United States.
ALCEE FORTIER,
Professor of Romance Languages, Tulane University;
Author of H'ittory of Louisiana, etc.
1186 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
CHAPTER III.
THE SPANISH IN THE SOUTH.
Spain's Great Opportunity.
0 full is our early history of the struggle
between the English and the French for the
mastery of the region between the Atlantic
and the Great Lakes that it is hard for us
to realize how near Spain came to possessing in per-
petuity the vaster region between the Atlantic and
the Pacific. Before either England or France had
set foot on the continent, Ponce de Leon had pene-
trated into Florida, Pineda had found the mouth of
the Mississippi, De Soto had traversed the South
from Florida to Arkansas, Coronado had pressed
forward from Mexico beyond the Bed, and Menendez
had founded the oldest city in our land.
All this was in the Sixteenth century when Spain
was the greatest European power both by land and
sea. It was not until the beginning of the Seven-
teenth that the first French and English colonies
were planted. But for her arduous efforts in the
Old World to maintain her supremacy during that
century, she might easily have extended her colonies
in the New over both continents. Even with the
great struggle before her against the genius of
William of Orange, Henry of Navarre, and Eliza-
beth of England, she did ultimately settle Florida,
Texas, New Mexico, and California.
But her colonies were from first to last under mili-
tary and ecclesiastic rule. Self-government never
could develop. Their governors were sent out from
Spain. Their commerce was directed by the House
of Trade at Seville.
THE SPANISH IN THE SOUTH. 127
Discovery of Florida.
To the Spaniards the name Florida originally
meant the whole eastern half of the present United
States. This conception was in time limited by the
successive successful settlements of the French and
the English. It was discovered by accident. Juan
Ponce de Leon, governor of Puerto Eico, setting out
in search of the fountain of perpetual youth reported
to be on the island of Bimini, was driven by a tem-
pest to the coast of the mainland. Arriving there
on Palm Sunday, March 27, 1513, he named the
country Florida — Pascua Florida being the Spanish
name of the day. Going to Spain, he got leave from
the emperor Charles the Fifth to conquer it. This
he attempted to do, but was repulsed by the natives.
Expedition after expedition failed, Ayllon's along
the Atlantic coast as far as the James, Narvaez's
to Tampa Bay, De Soto's from Tampa Bay to the
"Washita, that of the Dominican Balbastro to convert
the natives. Meanwhile the French intruded.
Menendez Succeeds.
At last a colony was really planted by Don Pedro
Menendez de Aviles, who founded in 1565 the town
of Saint Augustine after destroying the French
Huguenot colony planted by Laudonniere on the
Eiver May, as the French called the St. John's.
Ayllon's first expedition sent by him to investigate
was driven by storm to the South Carolina coast
and anchored in the mouth of the Combahee, calling
it the Jordan. Here the Spaniards kidnapped
Indians and left among the natives a reputation for
perfidy. The expedition then made by Ayllon him-
self paid the penalty. Perfidy met perfidy, and the
Spaniards were massacred. The expedition of Nar-
vaez was of value, on account of the adventures of
Cabeza de Vaca, one of its few survivors, since he
128 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
finally wandered through the southwest to Culiacan
in Mexico. That of De Soto was of immense impor-
tance, since it gave Spain her claim to the whole
region touching on the Gulf and the Mississippi. He
did in fact march as a conqueror through Florida,
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and even into
Arkansas. But rich in incident and exploit as it is,
the scope of this paper does not permit a detailed
account of his expedition. The survivors, led by
Moscoso, built brigantines and sailed down the Mis-
sissippi, finding their way at last to Mexico after
three years* wanderings in our Southland.
Destruction of the French Colony.
Menendez sailed from Cadiz on his enterprise,
which had the double purpose of ousting the French
and establishing a Spanish colony, about the same
time that Eibaut left Dieppe on his second voyage.
Soon after the destruction of Fort Caroline, he
succeeded in capturing the shipwrecked forces of
Eibaut who had come to succor the garrison, and
massacred them all. The deed was avenged by a
private gentleman of Gascony, the Chevalier Dom-
inique de Gourges, who with the Indians for his
allies took three forts erected by the Spaniards and
hanged his prisoners on the trees Menendez was
believed by the French to have used. He put up over
them the inscription : "I do this not as to Spaniards,
but as to traitors, thieves, and murderers," the
report in France being that Menendez had hung up
his victims under a placard reading : " I do this not
as to Frenchmen, but as to Lutherans." However,
the ruthless ability of Menendez foiled the magnifi-
cent plan of Coligny to give the Huguenots a home
in the New World.
East Florida.
Menendez planted his principal colony at St.
Augustine, so named from its being founded on that
THE SPANISH IN THE SOUTH. 129
saint's day, August 28; but he also established other
posts at Cape Canaveral and at Port Royal. He
visited his colony again in 1572.
Meanwhile Dominican and Jesuit missionaries did
what they could to extend the control of the Span-
iards over the province. The Indians were long
hostile and the Spaniards made slow progress in
settling the country. Twice, too, St. Augustine was
captured and plundered by English adventurers, in
1586 by Francis Drake, and in 1665 by the pirate
John Davis. Later, when the Yemassees became
embroiled with the colonists of Carolina and
Georgia, the Spaniards found them ready allies.
West Florida.
The history of West Florida is in a measure apart
from that of East Florida. Pensacola, the bay of
which was visited by Maldonado, De Soto's admiral,
in January, 1540, and fixed upon as the place of
rendezvous for fleet and army, though never so used,
was settled in 1696 by Don Andres de Arriola. At
first its relations with the French colony at Biloxi
and New Orleans were amicable. But when war
was declared by France against Spain, before its
governor was apprised of that fact, Bienville took
Pensacola by surprise in May, 1719. In August the
Spanish governor, who had been landed at Havana
by the French, paid him back, for he took the place
from Bienville 's brother by surprise. But Bienville
took it a second time the same year, and this time
burned it. When peace was made, however, he
reluctantly obeyed the orders which came to him
from France, and restored it to the Spaniards.
When in 1763 Florida was ceded to Great Britain,
the inhabitants of Pensacola sailed away to Vera
Cruz.
The wealth and power which the conquistadores
KoLlft—9
130 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
had won for Spain, fortified by the military skill
begun for her by Gonsalvo de Cordova, were neutral-
ized by the absolutism and the bigotry of Philip II.
and his successors. Spain began to decline, and the
very means that had brought her to supremacy
helped to accelerate her decay.
Sea Power Lost by Spain.
Long before the Spanish Armada was shattered,
the English "sea dogs" were a terror to Spain and
her colonies. But that catastrophe definitely lost
her the lordship of the sea, and with the loss of her
maritime supremacy her colonies were virtually
gone, though she lost them slowly and gradually.
Yet it was long before the world realized the decad-
ence of Spain. Even in the earlier years of the
Eighteenth century, she continued to be the same
terror to the southern colonies of England that
Prance was to the northern.
War Between English and Spanish Colonies.
When in 1670 the English colony at Charles Town
was founded, the Spanish at Saint Augustine were
indignant at what they considered foreign intrusion
into their territory, and in all the wars between the
natives and the English they intrigued with the
Indians and aided them secretly or openly. Repeated
attacks were made on the English colonists in South
Carolina, and in that province expeditions were
again and again set on foot to punish the raids from
St. Augustine. In 1686 the Spaniards broke up the
colony of Lord Cardross at Stuart's Town on Port
Royal Island after plundering Governor Morton's
plantation on the Edisto. During the War of the
Spanish Succession, which lasted from 1701 to 1713,
an expedition led by Governor James Moore set out
to take St. Augustine. The town was taken and
THE SPANISH IN THE SOUTH. 131
plundered, but the castle held out, and the arrival
of Spanish ships forced Moore to raise the siege
and withdraw, leaving his ships and supplies to the
enemy. In 1706 a combined French and Spanish
fleet under the command of Le Feboure threatened
Charles Town and even landed troops, but they were
beaten off both by land and sea.
In 1715 when the Yemassees rose at Pocotaligo
and massacred some four hundred settlers in the
lower parishes, on their being driven out of the
Carolina colony by Governor Craven the Spaniards
welcomed the fugitives at St. Augustine with ringing
of bells and firing of cannon.
Georgia Founded.
It was this ceaseless danger from the Spanish and
their tribal allies that led to the settlement of
Georgia. James Edward Oglethorpe, with the
double motive of rescuing imprisoned debtors from
their miseries and of establishing a military outpost
against Spanish invasion, organized in 1732 a com-
pany to plant a new colony between the Savannah
and the Altamaha.
The Stirring Times of Oglethorpe.
He was given ample powers as governor and com-
mander-in-chief. Short as was his stay in the New
World, he accomplished much. He conciliated the
Creeks and had them for allies against the Spanish.
He brought over a regiment of Scotch Highlanders,
who afterwards settled in the colony. He built the
fortified town of Frederica on St. Simon's Island,
and planted forts on other islands to the southward.
He foiled more than one attack of the Spaniards of
St. Augustine by strategy. He failed indeed in 1740
to take St. Augustine; but after his defeat of the
formidable expedition led by Montiano, governor of
132 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
St. Augustine, first in the Battle of the Bloody
Marsh on St. Simon's Island, and then by his dex-
terous use of a deserter to fill the enemy with sud-
den panic, the English colonies in the South were no
longer molested by the Spanish.
Florida English, Louisiana Spanish.
When the Seven Years' War ended with the Peace
of Paris in 1763, Great Britain restored to Spain
Cuba and the Philippines, but Florida was ceded to
Great Britain, and as some compensation to Spain
for her humiliation France was induced to cede to
her Louisiana. Her rule was now over continuous
territory on the Gulf from Mobile westward, includ-
ing a vast domain in the valley of the Mississippi.
West Florida Spanish Again.
When she went to war with England her colonies
in America were, on May 8, 1779, authorized to join
in the attack on the English possessions in West
Florida. Bernardo de Galvez, the able governor of
Louisiana,— from whom Galveston in Texas took
its name, — attacked the English posts and annexed
once more to the Spanish crown the province of
West Florida. Pensacola was taken in May, 1781,
Spanish troops occupying all military posts. The
Natchez district formed a part of this province,
extending from the Yazoo to Bayou Sara. It now
became a dependency of Louisiana.
Minorcan Colonists.
It was during the British occupation of East
Florida that the planter Turnbull brought over his
colony of Minorcans to New Smyrna. They were
greatly dissatisfied and charged Turnbull with cru-
elty. Many Spanish families left the country rather
than remain under British rule.
THE SPANISH IN THE SOUTH. 133
All Florida Spanish Again.
At the close of the American Revolution the Peace
of Paris in 1783 gave back to Spain Minorca and
the Floridas. During the War of 1812, as the British
made free use of Florida against us, Jackson cap-
tured Pensacola, but it was soon restored to Spain.
Florida Ceded to the United States.
In 1820 the complications resulting from Jack-
son's campaign against the Seminoles who had
raided Georgia from East Florida made it so desir-
able for Spain to part with the province and for
the United States to secure it that negotiations were
entered into which ended in the purchase of it from
Spain in July, 1821, for five million dollars.
With the exception of Florida, all those posses-
sions of Spain in North America which are now in
the United States formed parts of Mexico. The
mother country, however, was late in settling even
many parts of Mexico itself. She was far too busy
battling heresy and contending for empire in Europe
to extend the conquests made by those brilliant
adventurers who went forth from her bosom in the
early years of the Sixteenth century.
New Mexico.
The colonization of California and New Mexico
preceded that of Texas. In 1595, after many others
had failed in the attempt to conquer it, Juan de
Ofiate induced the viceroy Velasco to allow him to
settle New Mexico. He set out from Zacatecas in
1598, crossed the Bio Grande at El Paso, where he
established his southernmost post, and founded his
first capital at San Juan de Caballeros, though later
Santa Fe was founded and became the capital. The
Indians having been seemingly brought under con-
134 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
trol, in 1599 he explored Arizona in part and a few
years later followed the Gila down to the Gulf of
California. Franciscans made haste to plant mis-
sions in the pueblos of New Mexico. In spite of the
claims of the Texans at a much later date this con-
quest of Onate 's was a separate province, depending
directly on Mexico. But revolts of the native pueblos
were frequent.
French Claims Lead to Spanish Settlement.
It was the settlement of La Salle in 1685 within
the borders of what is now Texas that moved Spain
to plant her first outposts between the Bio Grande
and the Sabine. Beginning with missions and mili-
tary posts, she established frontier colonies in the
region where Nacogdoches now stands, contenting
herself with destroying La Salle 's abandoned fort
on the Bay of San Bernard. In 1700 the outpost
mission of San Juan Bautista was established near
the Bio Grande, not far from the modern Eagle
Pass. The authorities then again went to sleep, until
aroused by the appearance in 1714 of Saint-Denis
at the presidio attached to this mission.
Missions and Presidios in Texas.
This reminded them that the French had in the
meantime gained possession of the mouth of the
Mississippi and that their colony of Louisiana now
intervened between the Spain of Florida and the
Spain of Mexico. Missions and presidios were again
planted in the Nacogdoches region, and this time
also in the vicinity of La Salle 's unsuccessful set-
tlement and at San Antonio de Bejar. In fact, up
to the time of the coming of the American colonists
there were no fewer than twenty-five missions and
presidios founded. But they were by that time all
in a state of decay. The very good they did was
THE SPANISH IN THE SOUTH. 135
counterbalanced by the stifling strictness of both
civil and ecclesiastical organization. Men under
Spanish rule moved like automata to the sound of
drum and bell. Every mission was an industrial
school, it is true; but the pupils remained always
under tutelage. The discipline was rigid : the unmar-
ried, male and female, lodged in separate quarters
and were locked in at night; the day's work began
and ended with catechism and prayer; each Indian
had to work two hours a day on the pueblo farm for
the support of the Church.
Yet there were advances made on the earlier
treatment of the natives. Neither in Mexico and its
dependent provinces, nor in Florida, was the native
population worked to extinction as had been the
case in the islands. The great mixture of races had
much to do with bringing about the milder policy
and the protective legislation. The importation of
negro slaves too — though never a large feature in
Mexican commerce — was another factor favorable to
the survival of the Indians. The laws regarding
slaves were decidedly more humane than those of
the English and French colonies.
Still the missions, in spite of the zeal and devotion
of the Franciscans who founded them, were in the
end a failure. The Indian converts ran away, the
Spanish soldiers were violent, the real rulers were
far away, the wild Indians were increasingly fierce,
the settlements were too far apart. Judgments of
provincial governors were subject to review, if on
military subjects, by the commandant at Chihuahua ;
if on fiscal, by the intendant at San Luis Potosi;
if on ecclesiastical, by the bishop at Nuevo Leon;
if on civil, by the audiencia of Nueva Galicia : all on
the other side of the Eio Grande.
At last, in 1794, the missions were all secularized.
136 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
Spain Mistress of Texas, Louisiana and West Florida.
From 1763 to 1800 Louisiana also was under the
rule of Spain and the energy of her Spanish gover-
nor, Bernardo de Galvez, who took from the English
Baton Bouge, Natchez, Mobile, and Pensacola, added
to her dominions all of West Florida.
But this security for Spanish rule in the west was
transient, for in 1800 Napoleon got Louisiana
secretly ceded to France, that he might with San
Domingo as his base of operations restore to France
her colonial empire. But the insurrection in San
Domingo, the need of money for his great wars, and
the superiority of the English on the sea destroyed
these plans and induced him in 1803 to sell the vast
Louisiana territory to the United States.
Mexico and Florida Lost to Spain.
In 1810 the French occupation of Spain led to the
insurrection of the Mexicans, and, although that was
put down in Texas by the defeat of the revolutionists
on the Medina in 1813, the struggle was renewed in
Mexico by Eiego and Quiroga and her independence
was won in 1821. Meantime in 1819 Spain had
parted with Florida to the United States and when
Mexico won her independence she claimed Texas
along with the other provinces once Spanish and
under the viceroy's rule as hers. The filibustering
expeditions of Nolan, Magee, and Long had during
this chaotic period intensified the hostility of the
Mexicans to the Americans and, though many Amer-
ican colonies were allowed to be planted in the
almost empty land, the proclamation of an inde-
pendent republic by Edwards was not calculated to
allay their distrust. But for the anarchy that pre-
vailed in Mexico, no doubt the Americans would all
have been driven out, in spite of the fact that con-
THE SPANISH IN THE SOUTH. 137
fusion and disorder would then have reigned
supreme in Texas.
Texas Lost to Mexico.
The Americans stayed, and the number of towns
increased. But the government, whoever was at the
head of it in the many successive revolutions, con-
tinued hostile, until the situation became unbearable.
The Americans at last rose in revolt, at first as sup-
porters of the federal party, but in the end for an
independent republic. This they achieved by the
victory on the San Jacinto in 1836. Many Spaniards
joined them in their cause and their descendants are
today among the best of the citizens of Texas.
New Mexico Lost to Mexico.
Ten years later came annexation and the war
between Mexico and the United States, which put
New Mexico also into the Anglo-American republic.
From this time neither Spain nor any of her former
colonies held rule over any part of our Southland.
But there are countless monuments of the old
Spanish dominion scattered through our land.
Besides the houses in St. Augustine of coquina — a
conglomerate of shells and shell-lime quarried when
still soft from Anastasia Island — the old mission
cathedrals and the adobe walls of San Antonio and
elsewhere in Texas, there are the wild horses —
marsh tackeys in South Carolina, Georgia, and
Florida, mustangs in Texas and New Mexico —
descendants of estrays from the Spanish horses or
captures made by Apaches and Comanches. There
are also many estates in Texas and in what were
once the Floridas from Natchez to St. Augustine,
the original title deeds of which are in Spanish. The
Spanish land measure is the legal one in Texas, and
there are many Spanish usages still in vogue, as the
138 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
stranger unfamiliar with the method of counting
money by "bits" will soon experience.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Bancroft, Hubert H.: North American States and
Texas (1889); Bourne, E. G.: The American Nation: Spain in
America (1904); Brown, John Henry: History of Texas (1892);
Campbell: Colonial Florida (1892); Chandler and Chitwood: Makers
of American History (1904) ; Crane, William Carey: Life and Select
Literary Eemains of Sam Houston (1884); de la Vega, Garcillasso:
Histoire de la Conquete de la Floride (translated by P. Eichelet,
1711); Darby, William: Memoir of the Geography and Natural and
Civil History of Florida (1821) ; Doyle, J. A.: History of the United
States ("Freeman's Series," 1876); Dewees, W. B. : Letters from
an Early Settler (1853); Edwards, David B.: History of Texas
(1836); Elliott, Sarah Barnwell: Sam Houston (1900); Fairbanks,
George R. : History of Florida (1871); Foote, Henry Stuart: Texas
and the Texans (1841); Gayarre, Charles Arthur: History of the
Spanish Domination in Louisiana (1854); Garrison, George P.:
American Commonwealths: Texas (1903); Guffarel, Paul: Histoire
de la Floride Francaise (1875); Howe, George: History of the
Presbyterian Church in South Carolina (1870); Hamilton, Peter J. :
Colonial Mobile (1897); Holly, Mary Austin: Texas (1836); Henry,
W. S. : Campaign Sketches of the War with Mexico (1847); Irving,
Theodore: The Conquest of Florida (1888); Jay, William: Review
of the Mexican War (1849); Jones, Charles C., Jr.: History of
Georgia (1883); Kennedy, William: Texas (1841); Lowery, Wood-
bury: The Spanish Settlements in the United States: Florida (1905) ;
Lanier, Sidney: Florida (1876); Lowry and McCardle: History of
Mississippi (1891) ; Meek, A. B. : Romantic Passages in Southwestern
History (1857); Morphis, J. M.: History of Texas (1874); Pickett,
Albert James; History of Alabama (1851); Eeid, Samuel C., Jr.:
Expeditions of the Texas Rangers (1848); Rye, William B. : Dis-
covery and Conquest of Florida (1851); Ramsay, David: History of
South Carolina (1858); Shipp, Barnard: De Soto and Florida
(1881); Thrall, H. S.: History of Texas (1885); Yoakum, H.:
History of Texas (1856) ; Annual Report of the American Historical
Association (1903-06); La Florida: Cartas de Menendes de Aviles
(1893).
CHARLES WOODWARD HUTSON,
Member American Historical Association.
THE GEKMANS IN
SOUTH.
139
CHAPTER IV.
THE GERMANS IN THE SOUTH.
General Statistics.
'ROM 1820 to 1900 more than 5,010,000
natives of the German Empire came to the
United States. Adding to this number
those immigrants from Austria-Hungary,
Russia, Switzerland, Luxemburg, Alsace-Lorraine
and from other countries who were German by race
and used German as their mother tongue, we may
say that German immigration during that period
amounted to about 7,000,000 persons. During the
same period there arrived 6,893,489 English, Irish
and Scotch immigrants, so that German immigration
from 1820 to 1900 was about equal to the combined
immigration from Great Britain.
Since 1850 the land of birth of the inhabitants of
the United States has been ascertained through the
United States Census, and we are thus enabled to
show the distribution of the German element over
the South.
INHABITANTS OF THE SOUTHERN STATES BORN IN THE GERMAN
EMPIRE.
Alabama ......
1850.
1,113
1860.
2,477
1870.
2,479
1880.
3,238
1890.
3,945
1900.
3 634
Arkansas
Florida
540
324
1,109
466
1,562
595
3,620
978
6,225
1,855
5,971
1,812
Georgia
972
2,444
2,760
2,956
3,679
3,407
Louisiana
17,887
24,215
18,912
17,475
14,625
11,839
Maryland
M'ss'ssippi
North Carolina.
South Carolina.
Tennessee
Texas
27,124
1,135
363
2,220
1,200
9.266
43,762
1,967
755
2,893
3,794
19,823
47,845
2,954
904
2,742
4,525
23,976
45,481
2,556
950
2,846
3,983
35,347
52,436
2,284
1,077
2,502
5,364
48 843
44,990
1,926
1,191
2,975
4,569
48 295
Virginia
5,547
10,438
4,050
3,759
4 361
4 504
West Virginia . .
6,231
7,029
7 292
6 537
South'n States. 67,691 114,143 119,535 130,218 154,488 140,750
United States. 583,774 1,276,075 1,690,287 1,966,742 2,784,894 2,666,990.
140 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
The general decrease in numbers for 1900 is due to
the great falling off of German immigration result-
ing from Germany's industrial prosperity and the
expansion of her commerce. People do not emigrate
in times of peace and plenty. German immigration,
which in 1882 amounted to 250,630 persons, fell in
1900 to 18,507.
The South Atlantic states, most of which show
now but a small number of Germans, had a large
German immigration in the Eighteenth and first half
of the Nineteenth century, when religious and politi-
cal persecution and the effects of war drove tens of
thousands over the sea. From Pennsylvania, too,
many Germans came to the South Atlantic states
and from there spread over Alabama, Mississippi
and Tennessee. At the breaking out of the War of
Independence, one-fifth of the whole population of
the thirteen colonies and at least one-third of that
of Pennsylvania were Germans.
German Settlements in the South.
Virginia. — Germans in Jamestown are mentioned
in the reports of Captain John Smith. German car-
penters who had been treated badly by the English
settled among Chief Powhatan's Indians. The first
list of planters contained German names. Augustin
Herrmann, a German from Bohemia, was the
founder of the tobacco export trade. Johannes
Lederer "from the Alps" was the first explorer of
the Allegheny mountains. His report was written
in Latin (1669).
The first German settlement was made in 1714.
Governor Spotswood having discovered iron ore on
the Bapidan, caused German miners from Muesen
in Westphalia to come to Virginia to build the first
iron furnace. Their settlement was called "Ger-
manna." Among these families we find the names
THE GERMANS IN THE SOUTH. 141
of Kemper and Fischbach. A descendant, Gen.
James Lawson Kemper, was governor of Virginia,
and Kemper county, Miss., is named after another
descendant, the intrepid Col. Eeuben Kemper, who
with his two brothers, Samuel and Nathan, had
moved from Fauquier county, Va., to the vicinity of
Pinkneyville, Miss., and died in Natchez in 1827.
Peter Fischbach was governor of Arkansas.
During the War of Independence, the town of
Woodstock in the Shenandoah Valley, a region set-
tled by Germans, was the scene of an act of inspiring
patriotism. Eev. Peter Muehlenberg, a German
Lutheran minister, who in his youth had served with
the dragoons in Germany, addressing his congrega-
tion, said that there was a time to pray and to
preach, but also one to fight. This time had come.
"Therefore, whoever loves freedom and his new
fatherland, let him follow me. ' ' Then taking off his
ministerial robe, under which he wore the uniform
of an officer, he buckled a sword about his waist
and amidst indescribable enthusiasm, while drums
were beating in front of his church, he enlisted 162
men in the revolutionary army. Kev. and Gen. Peter
Muehlenberg left a brilliant military record and
gained the intimate friendship of George Washington
and Patrick Henry.
Maryland. — The first Germans in Maryland came
from Pennsylvania. When the English took posses-
sion of New Amsterdam (New York), many German
Catholics emigrated from there to Maryland, and
Frederic county became a German centre. The first
German church in Baltimore was built in 1758. Dur-
ing the War of Independence the Germans in Mary-
land furnished a complete regiment and a company
of artillery.
North Carolina.^&ix. hundred and fifty Germans
142 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
from the Palatinate and 1,500 Swiss under von
Graffenried came in 1710 and founded New Berne.
They were followed by the Moravian Brethren, who
settled Rowan county between 1720 and 1725.
South Carolina. — Germans and Swiss under Purry
founded Purryville in 1732 and introduced silk cul-
ture. Many others followed them. During the War
of Independence the Germans of Charleston founded
the German "Fuesilier Compagnie," a military
company still existing there.
Georgia. — German Mennonites and Herrnhuters
settled on St. Simon's Island and near Savannah in
1731. In 1734 about 1,200 Protestants, driven out
of the city of Salzburg, came under Baron von Reck
and founded Ebenezer, thirty miles above Savannah,
Louisiana. — German immigration to Louisiana
began at an early date. When, after 1717, agricul-
ture was to be introduced on a grand scale, large
concessions of land were given to such as obligated
themselves to import the necessary labor to cultivate
the soil, and President John Law of the ' ' Compagnie
des Indes ' ' sent agents to the Ehine country to secure
German peasants.
Ten thousand Germans trusted the promises of
the Louisiana promoters and left their homes.
Many succumbed to the hardships of the journey
through France and still more died in the French
ports, where they lay crowded together for months,
were insufficiently fed and suffered from epidemic
diseases. Six thousand sailed for Louisiana.*
Diseases contracted in port broke out anew after
their departure and owing to the unsanitary condi-
tions of the ships, the wretched fare, the polluted
drinking water and the lack of medicines and dis-
infectants, half of the immigrants died at sea. Of
* See Chevalier Soniat Dufossat's Synopsis.
THE GERMANS IN" THE SOOTH. 143
1,200 Germans and Swiss who left La Bochelle in
January, 1721, but 200 arrived in Biloxi on the Gulf
coast. Some vessels were captured by pirates and
others stayed too long in San Domingo, where the
half -starved people overindulged in fruit and were
exposed to infection from tropical diseases.
In Biloxi, where the inhabitants relied for pro-
visions on the vessels from France, a chronic state
of semi-starvation existed, the provisions intended
for the immigrants were taken away by force to
feed the soldiers, and the immigrants had to stand
in the burning sun up to their breasts in saltwater
and catch oysters and crabs to live on. And as they
had to remain there for many months because no
boats were provided to take them to the concessions
on the Mississippi, terrible epidemics raged, so that
the priests, on account of their many duties attend-
ing the sick and the dying, could no longer keep
mortuary records.*
Finally some Germans reached Law's plantation
at the mouth of the Arkansas Eiver, but only to hear
that John Law was a bankrupt and that they were
abandoned before they could make a crop. Indians
assisted them. The Law people then still in the
ports of France or on the sea were given lands on
what is now called the ' ' German Coast, ' ' the parishes
St. Charles and St. John the Baptist, above New
Orleans; and there their fellow-sufferers from the
Arkansas Eiver joined them and with them culti-
vated the rich lowlands on both banks of the Mis-
sissippi. Malaria and other diseases thinned their
ranks, but their children survived and made a para-
dise out of the German Coast. In olden times when
New Orleans too had to rely for provisions on the
ships from France, which often did not come in time,
* See declaration of a Capuchin in the Etat Civile of 1723,
144 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
the German pioneers rowed down the Mississippi
with their products and more than once saved the
city from severe famine. Their descendants, the
''Creoles of German descent," lived in prosperity
and wealth down to the War of Secession. Then
they shared the fate of the other Creoles.
Most Germans now living in Louisiana came be-
tween 1845 and 1860. At that time the tide of immi-
gration set west and, there being no transcontinental
railroads at that time, many immigrant vessels came
to New Orleans, whence the people went up the Mis-
sissippi, the Ohio and the Missouri. In the calendar
year 1854 nearly 40,000 Germans landed in New
Orleans. Many remained there, but when the rail-
roads from the eastern ports of the United States
reached Cincinnati and St. Louis, the Mississippi
route to the interior was abandoned. Thus immigra-
tion via New Orleans declined. With the impending
reestablishment of direct passenger steamship lines
from German ports to New Orleans, a change for the
better is confidently expected.
Texas. — The first Germans were brought to Texas
by Baron von Bastrop, a German nobleman from
Oldenburg. He came from Louisiana, where he had
received a land grant in 1795, on which he settled
some Germans and founded the town of Bastrop
(Morehouse parish). This grant was later pur-
chased by Aaron Burr. In Texas von Bastrop was
given another grant, on which he settled Germans
from Delmenhorst, Oldenburg, and founded another
town of Bastrop (on the Colorado River) in 1823.
In the war for the liberation of Texas (1836) many
Germans were among the American volunteers and
a number of them fell in the battles of San Antonio,
Goliad and San Jacinto. Some remained and from
THE GERMANS IN THE SOUTH. 145
this time on many individual Germans came from the
United States.
The first German minister, the Rev. Ervendsberg
from Illinois, came to Houston in 1839 and there
founded the first German Protestant congregation.
About this time the President of the Republic of
Texas was authorized by Congress to enter into con-
tract with companies and individuals for the settling
of large tracts of land in the western part, as indi-
vidual colonists were not able to protect themselves
there against the Indians.
One of these contractors was Henry Castro, who
brought 2,134 colonists between the years 1842 and
1847, mostly Germans from Wurtemburg, Baden,
Rhenish Prussia, Alsace and Switzerland, and
founded the town of Castroville on Medina Creek,
west of San Antonio.
In 1844 the "Mainzer Adelsverein, " an associ-
ation of German princes and nobles, acquired the
Fischer & Miller grant, which began at the confluence
of the Llano and the Colorado rivers (eighty miles
north of San Antonio) and extended up both rivers.
There they wished so to mass German immigrants
that these would preserve their language and their
nationality, create new markets for German indus-
tries and help develop German maritime enterprises.
Prince Karl zu Solms Braunfels, the commissary-
general of the association, began operations by pur-
chasing Powderhorn Bay at Indian Point, near Port
Lavaca, for a landing place and permanent camp,
and called it ' ' Karlshafen. " There the first 150
German families arrived about Christmas, 1844, and
started for Fischer's grant via Victoria, Gonzales
and Seguin. On Good Friday, 1845, they reached
the ford of the Guadalupe River, where the prince
had bought part of the Veramondi league. There
Vol. 10—10
146 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
they founded the town of "Neu Braunfels," named
for the prince's ancestral castle. A second troop
arrived there in June. Each man was given a town
lot and a ten acre farm.
Then trouble began. Improvident expenses by the
prince, dishonesty on the part of agents on both sides
of the ocean and costs in excess of calculations had
reduced the funds of the association, and remittances
grew smaller and smaller. Continuous rains made
roads and rivers impassable for months, lack of
shelter for the ever increasing multitude of new
arrivals on the coast, malarial fever and dysentery-
all seemed to combine against the enterprise.
Finally when the weather improved the war between
the United States and Mexico broke out, all draught
animals, cattle and vehicles were bought up for the
army and prices for necessaries rose very high.
On the coast 1,000 immigrants died, many perished
on the road to the interior and all arrived in Neu
Braunfels sick and miserable. Three hundred died
there. Some of the young men formed military
companies and joined the American army and others
went to San Antonio, the base for part of the United
States forces, where there was work for all who
applied.
In order to avoid a protracted stay in Neu Braun-
fels, another advance in the direction of Fischer's
grant was determined upon and 10,000 acres were
purchased on the Paternales Kiver, where, on the
8th of May, 1846, 120 men founded "Friedrichs-
burg, ' ' so named after Prince Frederick of Prussia,
who was a member of the association.
Then Herr von Meusebach, the successor of the
prince, and Dr. Eemer ventured an expedition into
the unknown regions of Fischer's grant, the hunting
grounds of the wild Comanches, and succeeded in
THE GEBMANS IN THE SOUTH. 14?
making a treaty of friendship with the Indians.
This was followed by the founding of German settle-
ments on the north side of the Llano : Castell, Bet-
tina, Leiningen and Schoenberg, all on Fischer's
grant, which was at last reached — in 1847. It was
220 miles from the coast.
In 1848 the association broke up after bringing
over 6,000 Germans to Texas.
Although the conditions under which the grant had
been given — the settling of a stipulated number of
people in a specified time — had not been fulfilled,
the legislature of Texas gave each head of a family
460 acres of land and each single man 320 ; and from
1848 to 1854 the general land office issued 3,492
certificates for Fischer's grant alone and 543 for
Castro's grant.
After 1848, the year of the revolution in Germany,
thousands of political refugees, all men of education
and high ideals, came to America, and many settled
in Texas. They were called "The Forty-eighters "
or the "Latin farmers." They became the leaders
of their people. San Antonio, Sisterdale and
Comfort were their centres.
Since then an uninterrupted stream of German
immigration has spread over Texas, which in 1900
had 48,295 inhabitants born in Germany. If we
consider also that their descendants preserved the
language of their parents we can judge the impor-
tance of the German element in Texas. There are
at present twenty-eight German weekly newspapers
in the state and one excellent daily, the Freie Presse
fuer Texas, in San Antonio.
West Virginia. — Oppression of the English High
Church and large land owners drove many Germans
from their Pennsylvania and Virginia homesteads to
the mountain region. Part of West Virginia was
148 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
also settled by the German Shenandoah Valley immi-
gration. A German named Eobert Harper (Har-
per's Ferry) located there in 1734. Jacob Hite
(Haid) founded Legtown and Thomas Scheppert
Shephardstown The Waggeners and Faulkners,
who distinguished themselves in the French and
Indian War and also during the War of Indepen-
dence, came to Berkeley county. The first settle-
ments in the Panhandle were made by Germans.
In 1758, Thomas Decker established a German set-
tlement on Decker's Creek, but all were murdered by
the savages. In the horrible massacre at Fort Sey-
bert in May, 1758, the Germans suffered the same
fate. In 1776 all the Germans who had settled in
Tucker county were murdered by the Indians, as
was also a German settlement on Dunkart's Creek
in 1779. Owing to this constant warfare the early
Germans of this mountain region became Indian
hunters. The most celebrated of them was Ludwig
Wetzel, after whom Wetzel county is named. He
alone took more than thirty scalps of warriors to
avenge the death of his father.
The city of Wheeling was laid out on the land of
Col. Ebenezer Zahn, a German, and on the island of
Wheeling, "Zane's Island," descendants of the
original Zahn still carry on the culture of the grape-
vine with excellent results.
After the Revolutionary War Gen. George Wash-
ington, who desired German settlers for his extensive
lands, invited the German prisoners of war to remain
in the New World and a very large number of them
accepted his proposal and built their cabins in
Greenbrier, Pocahontas, Nicholas, Fayette and
Kanawha counties.
Alabama. — Germans and their descendants from
Georgia, Virginia and the Carolinas spread over the
THE GERMANS IN THE SOUTH. 149
northern part of Alabama. Mobile had at an early
date quite a large number of Germans, who, as a
rule, came via New Orleans. About 1870 a German
named Cullmann founded the German colony Cull-
mann, which proved very successful and showed
what German farmers can do on comparatively poor
land and without negro labor, which is considered
indispensable by so many Southern people. By a
recent census Cullmann 's colony has now 1,999
white inhabitants and but a single negro. John G.
Cullmann, who was born in Bavaria in 1823, died in
1895. His colony has now two weekly papers, two
banks, a public school and a high school, churches of
several denominations, the St. Bernhard Catholic
College of the Benedictine Fathers, a convent and
school of the Sisters of Charity and a handsome Odd
Fellows' Home, built of concrete which will be fin-
ished in a few months and will cost $50,000. About
the year 1900 Germans from Chicago founded a
German colony on Perdido Bay, in the southeast
corner of the state, which has now about 300 Ger-
man families. The development of the iron region
around Birmingham brought many Germans as in-
dustrial workers to Alabama.
Tennessee. — Nashville and Memphis had already
in the forties of the last century a large German
population. In 1845 Germans founded the town of
Wartburg, in East Tennessee, which, in 1848, had
800 German inhabitants. During the War of Seces-
sion this colony suffered to some extent, but since
then German immigration has revived.
Arkansas. — In 1833 an emigration society was
formed in the city of Worms, Germany, which sent
a colony of sixty German families, altogether 160
persons, to Arkansas. Their leader was the Kev.
Klingenhoefer, who had been persecuted in Germany
on account of his liberal views. This colony soon
150 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
dissolved, some of the members going to Illinois,
but Eev. Klingenhoefer remained and settled near
Little Eock.
Mississippi. — Natchez and Vicksburg, the two com-
mercial centres of the state, being situated on the
Mississippi Eiver, received large German colonies
at the time when this river was the immigrant route
GO the interior. In Natchez a German literary and
reading club was founded in 1839 by Gen. John
Anton Quitmann, the son of Dr. Friedrich Quitmann,
a German Protestant minister in Ehinebeck, N. Y.
General Quitmann came to Natchez in 1823 and rose
to the highest offices of the state. He was a member
of the state legislature, president of the Senate,
member of the United States Congress, justice of
the Supreme Court of the state, and governor. He
fought in the war for the liberation of Texas, was
made major-general in the Mexican War, and was
voted a sword of honor by Congress for bravery in
the battle of Monterey. In Congress he was one of
the most ardent supporters of the cause of Cuban
liberty.
On the Gulf coast of the state of Mississippi
numerous descendants are found of those Germans
who came to Louisiana between 1720 and 1730.
Among them are the descendants of Hugo Brnestus
Krebs, of Neumagen, who died about 1776 and left
fourteen grown children. The old Krebs homestead
near Scranton is still occupied by one of the de-
scendants of Hugo Ernestus Krebs.
J. HANNO DEILER,
Professor Emeritus of German in the Tulane University of
Louisiana.
THE JEW IN THE SOUTH. 151
CHAPTER V.
THE JEWS IN THE SOUTH.
'N writing of the Jew in "The South in the
Building of the Nation," one is confronted
at the outset with a serious difficulty. Not
that the Jew has not made a significant addi-
tion to national progress and achievement, for his
material contribution is everywhere self-evident.
Nor, furthermore, that he has not likewise aided in
the development of those ideals which we term
"American," for on that side, too, the Jew must
be recognized as a prominent factor by all familiar
with his history. But the Jew no sooner settled in
this country than he at once identified himself with
its general interests, so that what he has done can
no longer be distinguished as specifically Jewish.
The American Jew, in giving his support to every
uplifting movement, has given it, not as a Jew, but
as an American. The thesis, therefore, resolves
itself into an enumeration of some of the things
accomplished by men of Jewish birth or descent, and
the limits of this article will permit of only the
briefest indication of the activities of the Jew in the
South.
Jewish Record in Southern History.
Reviewing the question historically then, it is on
record that Jews first settled in America in 1654.
It was not long before they were to be found in all
of the original colonies, and before the end of the
Seventeenth century individual Jews were scattered
throughout the South.
The Northern colonies were not liberal, and when
152 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
South Carolina was settled, in 1670, with Locke's
tolerant constitution as the rule of government—
the Jews being specifically mentioned therein — it is
not surprising that the Jew, in common with the per-
secuted of other peoples, should have gone there to
seek a home where he might worship God as his
conscience dictated. The Jews who settled in South
Carolina came principally from London, some from
New Amsterdam and some from the West Indies.
The toleration of South Carolina attracted them.
So did its commercial opportunities. It was the only
colony where the Jew practically never suffered any
civil or religious disabilities. A Jew acted as inter-
preter to Governor Archdale in 1695, and several
Jews were naturalized under the Act of 1696-97.
Jews are mentioned as taking part in politics as
early as 1703, and by the year 1750 they formed in
the population a significant element, including sev-
eral merchants of large means, with a regular com-
munal organization. In 1800, or soon thereafter,
the Charleston community was the largest, the
wealthiest and the most cultured community of Jews
in America.
It has already been said that most of the Jews
who settled in South Carolina came from England.
England was not a congenial soil for the Jews in the
Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries. In the mid-
dle of the Eighteenth century, Picciotto tells us, there
were in England from a hundred and fifty to two
hundred rich Jewish families, two-thirds of whom
were Spanish and Portuguese. In addition were
about five times as many families who verged on
pauperism. And, while the leading financiers were
Jews and while prominent merchants among the
Jews rivalled the foremost English houses in the
city of London, socially Jews were barely tolerated,
THE JEW IN THE SOUTH. 153
and politically they labored under disabilities until
the year 1853. Little wonder that South Carolina
attracted them !
These early immigrants to South Carolina were
for the most part, though not entirely, originally
Spanish and Portuguese Jews, descendants of vic-
tims of the Inquisition. They were a people of
splendid traditions, ''whose ancestors had ban-
queted with sovereigns and held the purse-strings
of kings." They had come from a land where learn-
ing flourished, where culture was of the highest, and
where their forefathers had experienced the golden
age of their history. They were a people of fine
bearing, and from the beginning won recogni-
tion for their integrity and business ability. Com-
mercially, they were important, their knowledge of
foreign languages, as well as their connections with
England, Holland, Jamaica, Barbadoes and the
Spanish South American colonies making them val-
uable intermediaries of trade. Charleston possessed
numerous Jewish ship-owners whose vessels traded
with England and the West Indies. The indigo
industry, after rice the largest source of revenue to
the province, received its greatest impetus through
Moses Lindo, an English Jew who settled in Charles
Town in 1757, and who worked indefatigably to pro-
mote the welfare of the province till his death in
1774. Socially, the Jews mingled on equal terms
with the best people in the province.
Georgia was colonized in 1733, and the arrival of
forty Jews in the second vessel, which reached
Savannah in July, 1733, was almost contemporane-
ous with that of the settlers first to land. Savannah
was the only place in the South to which the Jews
came as a colony. They were, nearly all of them,
Jews who were natives of Portugal, but had stayed
154 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
for a brief period in London. It would seem that
they came at their own expense and paid for the
allotments of land made to them. In 1733, the Jews
constituted one-third of the entire population of
Savannah.
As in South Carolina, they rendered good service
to the colony. The culture of the grape was intro-
duced by Abraham de Lyon, who had been a vineron
in Portugal, and he would doubtless have succeeded
in his enterprise but for the bad faith of Oglethorpe.
Silk culture, too, was undertaken by the Jewish set-
tlers, Joseph Ottolenghi, a Jew by birth, being sent
over in 1751 to supervise the industry. The illiberal
policy of the Trustees caused an exodus from Sa-
vannah in 1741, nearly all the Jews leaving the
colony. Many of them, however, returned soon
after 1750. They played their part in commerce,
in spite of the fact that the Trustees did not always
act fairly by them. It was, indeed, largely due to
the industry of the Jews that the colony attained
any success. Their social and charitable character-
istics are referred to in the records of the Salz-
burgers, and the value of Dr. Nunez as a physician
is likewise mentioned. As in the neighboring col-
ony, the Jews mingled freely with their neighbors.
Prior to 1800, few Jews were to be found outside
of Charleston and Savannah. The desire to observe
their religion after the manner of their fathers was
largely the reason of this. So, in the early days,
when their numbers were few, the Jews did not
scatter far from organized communities. After
1800, the Jews in the South rapidly increased.
Their long and uninterrupted felicitous career had
borne goodly fruit, and nowhere else in ante-bellum
days could be found so many Jews prominent in
civil and political life. Already prior to 1800 they
THE JEW IN THE SOUTH. 155
were members of the state legislatures, and from
that time till 1860 the civic offices held by them
would make a formidable list. They are represented
in the National Senate and House of Representa-
tives, and frequently in the state legislatures, and
one is in the consular service. Among them are
statesmen, jurists, eminent lawyers, publicists,
dramatists, educators, physicians, artists and in-
ventors, many of whom attained recognition on both
sides of the Atlantic.
In a word, the Jews of the ante-bellum South have
made eminent contributions to art, to science and to
literature. And they have not acted as a separate
people in the great political movements that have
agitated the South; they have taken opposing sides
on every question. The institution of slavery, for
instance, had no more vigorous defender than Judah
P. Benjamin and no more vigorous opponent than
Solomon Heydenfeldt, of Alabama. They identified
themselves with the South, they were prominent in
commerce, helped to develop railroads and water-
ways, and many of the South 's public utilities were
largely made possible by Jewish capital. They par-
ticipated in the dangers of frontier life, blazing the
path for civilization in the wilderness. The Indian
trader, "Old Mordecai," founded the city of Mont-
gomery and was the first to plant cotton in Ala-
bama. Henry De Castro colonized more than 5,000
emigrants in Texas, and Jacob de Cordova rendered
valuable service to that state by making its resources
known to the outside world.
The Jew as a Patriot.
It has been said that equal laws and equal rights
are the best guarantees of loyalty and love of coun-
try. The Jew in the South is an illustration of this
156 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
truth. In every war of this country he has fur-
nished more than his share of men and given liber-
ally of his substance. Two Virginia Jews accom-
panied Washington in his expedition across the Alle-
ghany Mountains in 1754. A Jew of Charles Town
held a commission in the Cherokee War of 1760-61.
One of the most trusted leaders of the Revolution
in South Carolina was Francis Salvador. Incom-
plete as the records are, the names of thirty-four
Jews of South Carolina have come down as having
served the cause of independence. Georgia, with its
small Jewish population, furnished several patriots,
and the names of Jews from other Southern states
are on record. In the War of 1812, in the Texan
War of 1836, in the Florida War of 1846 and in the
Mexican War the Jews of the South furnished far
more than their proportion in the field. The War
between the States, however, furnished the best
example of Jewish patriotism. The Jews of the
South gave to the Confederacy a towering figure in
Judah P. Benjamin, its attorney-general, secretary
of war and secretary of state ; its first surgeon-gen-
eral and its first quartermaster-general. A Charles-
ton Jew made the largest money contribution to the
cause, and the first contribution in response to the
appeal of the surgeon-general came from Jewish
women of Charleston. The Hon. Simon Wolf in his
notable book has collected the names of 1,999 Jewish
soldiers who saw service in the field. Large as this
number is, it falls far short of the actual count of
those who fought for the right as they saw it. In
the recent Spanish- American War, 454 Jews of the
South volunteered their services.
So much, then, for the Jew of the South in peace
and in war. When we consider that the entire
Jewish population in the United States in 1818 was
THE JEW IN THE SOUTH. 157
only 3,000, and but 6,000 in 1826, we can but marvel
at the influence which the Jews of the South have
exercised. They have given the nation notable
leaders, eminent lawyers, distinguished philanthro-
pists, and a host of men who have added luster to
every profession. In a word, the Jew has here
reached the acme of his possibilities.
The Jew as a Citizen.
Since the War of Secession, communities have
sprung up everywhere in the wake of the tides of
immigration that have followed upon European per-
secutions. The South, for economic reasons, has not
received as many of the newcomers as the North,
but those who have gone there have everywhere
rendered good account of themselves, the children
of emigrants being often found among its most
prominent citizens. The experiment of civil and
religious equality has been amply justified, and the
Jew has shown himself worthy of the liberty that
has here been accorded him.
The Jew in the Old South was in all respects a
genuine Southron. In his unrestricted social inter-
course he has been often tempted to stray from his
own people. Nowhere else has there been so much
intermarriage. An enormous strain of Jewish blood
is everywhere apparent, and were actual figures
given they would be denied credence. The Jew in
the New South is typical of the New South, char-
acterized as it is by intense commercialism. In
business he is so successful that, according to a
recent estimate, from 70 to 80 per cent, of the capital
invested in several important industries in the larger
cities is Jewish money.
But the Jew is more than a mere trader. There
are to-day scattered through the South about 127,000
158 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
Jews. They are to be found in every city, village
and hamlet, striving for success and winning it, often
under the most adverse conditions, by virtue of their
industry, thrift and sobriety. They are foremost
in all public movements, patriotic and law-abiding,
cosmopolitan in their charities, and permitting none
of their own people to become a burden upon the
state. To the statistics of crime their contribution
is so small as to be practically negligible. If a
nation is made by its good citizens, then the Jews of
the South are entitled to a foremost place in helping
this great nation to its larger destiny.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Elzas, B. A.: The Jews of South Carolina from
the Earliest Times to the Present Day (Philadelphia, 1905); Wolf,
Simon: The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier and Citizen (Philadel-
phia, 1895) ; Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society
(16 vols.); The Jewish Encyclopedia (New York, 1901-5).
BAENETT A. ELZAS,
Babbi of K. K. Beth Elohim, Charleston, S. C.
CHAPTER VI.
THE INDIAN IN THE SOUTH.
^
' 0 give an historical outline of the Southern
Indians within the space allotted to me is
necessarily to confine myself to the merest
sketch, and I shall not undertake to include
the Indians of the Southwest, whose characteristic
culture, life and wars form an entirely distinct
chapter in history.
At the earliest period of which we have any knowl-
edge, the following tribes inhabited the Southern
states from Virginia south and west to the Missis-
THE INDIAN IN THE SOUTH. 159
sippi River, namely: The Powliatan Confederacy,
Manahoacs, Monacans, Catawbas, Shawanees, Cher-
okees, Seminoles, Creeks, Chickasaws, Choctaws, and
Yazoos or Natchez. The first four named occupied
mainly what is now Virginia, Maryland and the
Carolinas. The Shawanees dwelt in parts of West
Virginia, Tennessee, and westward into Kentucky
and Ohio. The Cherokees occupied a broad stretch
of country, including the western part of North
Carolina, northern Georgia, Alabama and Missis-
sippi, while the Creeks, a powerful tribe coming from
the West and originally called Muskogees, settled in
Mississippi, advanced eastward as far as middle Ala-
bama and even into Georgia and northward into
Tennessee. The Choctaws lived in northern Missis-
sippi and Tennessee, and the Yazoos along the Mis-
sissippi Eiver in the state of that name, also in east-
ern Arkansas. The Chickasaws occupied Louisiana
and Alabama ; the Seminoles, who were really a ren-
egade branch of the Creeks, settled in southern
Georgia and finally removed to Florida. Such were
the principal Southern tribes and their original habi-
tat so far as is known, although there were undoubt-
edly pre-historic migrations, but there were and still
are numerous smaller bands and sub-bands having
various local names or nick-names, thus creating fre-
quent confusion.
No other North American Indians have been situ-
ated precisely as these were, from the fact that they
were pressed on the southwest by the French and
Spanish, on the north and northeast by the English,
and thus practically surrounded on three sides by
conquering nations. The natural boundaries of their
country, the seacoast, the Mississippi and Ohio
rivers, became the highways of exploration and
trade.
160 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
The Powhataiis.
The tribe that played the greatest part in the his-
tory of the early settlements in Virginia were the
Powhatans, led most effectively not by the chief of
that name, but by his war-like brother Opechan-
chanough, who opposed the invaders with energy.
The influence of Powhatan was probably over-
estimated by the English, as there is nothing to show
that he possessed more power than the majority of
chiefs, but Opechanchanough generaled both the
important massacres in Virginia, those of 1622 and
1644, and was probably the first Indian to strike an
effective blow at the whites. Powhatan 's name lives
in history chiefly by reason of his capture of Capt.
John Smith and the pretty story of his daughter
Pocahontas, her friendship for the English and sub-
sequent marriage with Kolfe.
Most of these tribes were at enmity with one
another previous to the period of first settlements
and until the formation of confederacies among
themselves, of which the most important was the
Creek Confederacy. The Yazoos were entirely exter-
minated by the French in 1730, and the Tuscaroras,
who were a branch of the Powhatans, united with
the Six Nations of New York. The Catawbas became
much demoralized by early contact with the whites
and finally perished or were absorbed by the Creeks.
The Cherokees, Creeks, Chickasaws and Choctaws.
We shall now deal with what were on the whole
the most progressive Indians of our country, the
Cherokees, Creeks, Chickasaws and Choctaws. These
people, who were already living in permanent vil-
lages— the Cherokees indeed had a fairly well-
defined government of seven mother-towns and held
considerable cultivated land — received the whites for
the most part with friendship and opened their coun-
THE INDIAN IN THE SOUTH. 161
try to trade. Even though DeSoto had slaughtered
many while on his voyages of exploration, the early
voyageurs were able to visit and trade with them in
perfect safety. Friendly treaties were made with
each band, which were kept in every particular by
the Indians, until they had been broken by the
whites. The first treaty by which they ceded any
land was the Hopewell treaty of 1786.
During the French and Indian wars the Cherokees
and Creeks assisted the Americans in their expedi-
tions, and by their knowledge of the country and
their skill in scouting saved Braddock's command
from total destruction in 1756. Several of these
Indian soldiers on their way home were murdered
by some misguided and over-zealous white savages
on the Virginia frontier, doubtless inspired by the
fact that Virginia had already offered a bounty for
Indian scalps, although it is not to be supposed that
she intended to include those of her allies. These
outrages led to the first real outbreak of the Chero-
kees, and hindered the settlement of Georgia for
several years, although if it had not been for the
rash action of Governor Littleton, of Georgia, in
holding a number of chiefs as hostages and finally
massacring them, serious results might have been
averted. When Montgomery finally went out against
them he was defeated by the Indians, under the lead-
ership of their great war-chief, Ockonostota. On the
other hand, Attackullakulla, a friendly chief and a
diplomat, wisely used his influence in favor of peace,
but without immediate success. However, he distin-
guished himself by saving the life of Captain Stew-
art, when captured by the Indians. Not until after
a second and successful expedition had been sent
against them did the Cherokees sue for peace in 1761.
There was no serious uprising from this time until
Vol. 10—11
162 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
after the Creek Confederacy, including the Creeks,
Cherokees, Chickasaws and Choctaws, had been
formed early in the Nineteenth century. One of the
first laws passed by the new government was one
forbidding the introduction of ardent spirits. The
Indians possessed fruit orchards and large fields of
grain, and had made considerable progress in useful
arts. By 1826 the Cherokees had a written language,
of which the alphabet was invented by that remark-
able native genius, George Gist, or Sequoyah.
About the year 1812 the settlers began to encroach
upon their homes and fields ; murders of Indians by
whites were frequent, without just cause or repara-
tion made, and former friendship seemed forgotten.
However, they refrained from retaliation until the
news of British success at Maiden, the preaching of
the Shawanee prophet, and the efforts of Tecumseh
to form a powerful Indian nation, something after
the manner of Pontiac in the northwest, gave them
impetus and courage to strike a blow against the
invaders.
They rose under the leadership of Weatherford,
a remarkably gifted and eloquent mixed-blood, who
has been called "the corner-stone of the Creek Con-
federacy." An attack was made upon Fort Mimm,
Ala., in 1813, and nearly all the 275 persons in the
garrison were massacred. This act aroused the gov-
ernment to send General Jackson with 2,000 men
against the Indians, and he subdued them after a
series of bloody battles. Thus was overthrown the
power of the Creek Confederacy and again the
Indians were forced to sue for peace.
As has been the case in nearly all Indian wars,
there was a party friendly to the whites, in this
instance led by another brilliant man of mixed blood,
General Mclntosh. It is only fair to say that
THE INDIAN IN THE SOUTH. 163
Jackson would have fared worse than he did had it
not been for the assistance of Mclntosh and his men,
who acted as scouts and guides, and in fact fought
bravely against their own people.
The government was now bent upon forcing the
Indians westward or crowding them into a much
smaller territory. Commissioners sent to them for
the purpose of negotiating a treaty were baffled by
a general opposition to any cession of land. In their
determination to succeed by fair or unfair means,
the commissioners bribed Mclntosh, and he in turn
attempted to buy out other influential men. The
attempt failed, and only about one-tenth of the rep-
resentatives signed, but the treaty was nevertheless
accepted as valid. Thus Mclntosh helped to take
from his nation 10,000,000 acres, although they did
not realize this until the settlers began to press them
more closely ; and when they learned that the Amer-
ican government held this fraudulent treaty valid,
and that they could not break it, they took and exe-
cuted both Mclntosh and his brother-in-law, whose
part in the wrong had been discovered and exposed.
The Seminoles.
Meanwhile, in 1816 or 1817 the northern Seminoles
had been similarly pushed, and General Jackson was
sent against them also. After peace had been
effected, the Indians were ousted from their homes
and fine fields and banished to some desert pine lands
and swamps near the west coast of Florida. How-
ever, they were glad to escape the close proximity
of the frontiersmen who had brought so much suf-
fering upon them.
From this time on the development of the South
was more rapid, and the colonists appealed to the
general government to remove the Indians further
164 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
west. In 1825 a second treaty was made with the
Creeks which provided for their removal west of
the Mississippi Eiver, but only a few Cherokees
actually left, as the rest clung to their old homes.
There civilization encroached more and more closely
upon them, and wrongs were committed, doubtless,
on both sides, but the Indian was always the chief
sufferer. A few of the confederated tribes joined
the Seminoles in Florida, and a refuge was also
found there by negro fugitives and runaway slaves,
to the number of nearly 1,000, thus increasing the
population of the Seminoles.
About the year 1835 there was considerable white
emigration into Florida, and the whites, who were
the aggressors, began as usual to complain of the
Indians. A treaty was forced upon them by which
they too were to exchange their homes for unknown
territory in the west, but this treaty was signed only
by a few friendly chiefs and their followers, being
opposed by the leading chief, Micanopy, reinforced
by the great war-chief, Osceola. In fact, Osceola
was the backbone of the opposition. Their agent,
General Thompson, who had spared no means to
coerce them into signing, quarreled with Osceola and
caused him to be imprisoned, after which he finally
signed. But it appeared that this was merely a ruse
to cover his purpose of revenge.
In this treaty it was provided that the Indians'
homes should be abandoned and their stock sold.
They were given a limited time in which to effect
this ; the time had now expired and the agent ordered
them to bring in their stock to be sold at public auc-
tion. This they declined to do, and he soon found
that they did not consider the treaty binding and
did not intend to carry it into effect.
Meanwhile Osceola had collected an army and
THE INDIAN IN THE SOUTH. 165
advanced upon the settlers. Major Dade was sent
to an outpost and there attacked and his command
destroyed to a man. Several serious battles fol-
lowed, in which both sides suffered, but the end was
inevitable. The Seminoles finally submitted and
were removed.
Soon after this the Creeks again broke out and
were subdued and removed to the Indian Territory.
In their new home the same tribes formed their con-
federacy anew, including the Seminoles, and they
have since been known as the Five Civilized Nations.
They have advanced remarkably in civilization,
building schools and colleges and forming a govern-
ment of their own after the pattern of the govern-
ment of the United States, which remained in force
until the admission into the Union of the new state
of Oklahoma. (See, also, the article on THE INDIAN
PROBLEM IN THE SOUTH, in Volume IV.).
BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Bruce: Indians in the South and Economic His-
tory of Virginia in the 17th Century; Bullock: Virginia; Drake:
Indian Wars; Howe: Historical Collections of Virginia; Howison,
E. R. : History of Virginia; Irving: Conquest of Florida; Jackson,
H. H. : A Century of Dishonor; McCall: History of Georgia;
McCardy: South Carolina Under the Royal Government; Ramsey:
History of South Carolina; Wheeler: History of North Carolina;
Williams: History of Florida; Wood, N. B. : Lives of Famous Indian
Chiefs; Works of Captain John Smith; Hand-Book of American
Indians, and other Reports of the Ethnological Bureau, Washing-
ton, D.C.
CHARLES ALEXANDER EASTMAN (Ohiyesa),
Author Indian Boyhood, Old Indian Days, etc.
166 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
CHAPTER VII.
THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH.
American Negro Origins.
ROBABLY less is known of the life history
of the negro than of any other element in
our population. As a governmental activ-
ity American ethnology has largely confined
itself to the Indian, and private research has
only touched the surface of negro ethnology. The
United States contains the largest body of negroes
which has ever lived within historic times outside
the African continent, yet the museums of England
and Germany contain collections illustrative of
native negro life which are incomparably superior
to anything we have in this country. Popularly
speaking, so little is known by our people of the
negro's native life that we have come to think of
them as a people without an ancestral history, and
such knowledge as the mass of Americans have has
been so distorted as to be worth but little. It is
based upon study which until very recent times has
been largely confined to a search for evidence in
support of one side or the other of the ancient and
bootless controversy over the question of the rela-
tive positions in the human scale of the Caucasian
and the Negro.
There is a great deal of truth in Sir Harry John-
ston's remark that "The negro, more than any other
human type, has been marked out by his mental and
physical characteristics as the servant of other
races." He adds that there are exceptions to the
rule, and that the least divergence from the negro
THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH. 167
stock in an upward direction, as in the case of the
Gallas and Somalis, is characterized by greater hos-
tility to the slavery relation. This matter of diver-
gence from the true negro type touches the root of
the study of American negro tribal stocks. The
"true negro" was found in a rather limited area,
extending along the west coast for about fifteen
degrees north from the equator. But this territory
could not have supplied the trade after it began to
assume the character and proportions of a legiti-
mate international traffic. That traffic tended at
once both to destroy and to disperse the coast popu-
lation. But it did more. It went out into the inte-
rior and extended its ramifications south of the
equator and across the continent, almost, if not
quite, to the eastern coast. Brazil drew her main
supply from Portuguese West Africa, developing a
trade which extended as far below the equator as
that of North America extended above it. In
addition to these sources of the traffic, other trad-
ing routes drew also on the East coast and on
Madagascar.
The common conception which regards all negroes
as of a common African ancestry is, therefore,
wholly erroneous. It is probable, on the contrary,
that the so-called American negro represents a
blended type which contains a greater intermixture
of different stocks than any other element of our
population. Sierra Leone owed its inception as a
colony for liberated slaves to the removal there of
a number of negroes from England, who were eman-
cipated by Lord Mansfield's decision in the Somer-
sett case in 1772. There were at the time between
12,000 and 20,000 negro slaves in England. The
colony developed into a place of refuge for all the
negroes set free from captured slavers after the
168 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
traffic became illegal. It thus became an assembling
ground for negroes from all parts of Africa which
supplied slaves to the markets of the world, and its
population afforded the best possible field for illus-
trating the number and diversity of these tribal
types. In the middle of the past century the labors
of an English missionary in Sierra Leone, the Rev.
S. W. Koelle, showed that the population of the col-
ony embraced negroes speaking two hundred differ-
ent dialects, and differing in tribal habits, customs
and practices. We have studied the different char-
acteristics of different American Indian tribes, and
no one would put in the same class the warlike
Sioux and the degraded "Digger." Yet we ignore
differences equally as pronounced among negroes.
There is, of course, to be considered the argument
that the intermixing of negro stocks has progressed
so far in this country that we now have a blended
product in which original differences have become
indistinguishable. The value of a knowledge of the
component elements of this stock does not wholly
depend upon the degree to which such original ele-
ments have or have not fused in the mass. The con-
tradictory and puzzling features which a study of
the American negro presents are not founded upon
the condition and characteristics of the masses of
the race. They arise, rather, from the numerous
instances of individuals who differ from the masses,
and who in themselves seem to invalidate conclu-
sions based upon observation of the race as a whole.
It is only when we know the composition of the
mass, and realize that in it, or upon its outskirts, are
many individuals who though commonly identified
with the race are really not negroes in racial herit-
age, that we can properly appraise these exceptional
cases in their relation to the larger group. Such
THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH. 169
tribes as could not be enslaved successfully, as the
Manyema of the upper Congo, were adopted as
allies by Arab traders, and became themselves slave
traders and raiders of the most inveterate and
relentless character. The Hausas and Fulahs of the
Egyptian Sudan were extensive owners of and
dealers in negro slaves, and they would resent as
quickly as a white man an attempt to identify them
with negroes. But the Arab dealer was no respecter
of persons, and when opportunity offered he did not
hesitate to sell to the white slaver his allies of a
different stock, along with the negroes whom he had
bought from them. In this and other ways many
hundreds, probably many thousands, of individuals
of superior native tribes, persons who in Africa
would be differentiated from the negro, found their
way into American slavery. Another element in
the so-called negro population of America was fur-
nished by the natives of Madagascar. These people
are not negro, but Malay in origin, and to this day
thousands of their descendants may be recognized
by their perfectly straight hair, rather high noses
and Indian type of complexion. At home they were
known as ''Malagasy," and the writer has found
numerous individuals of this strain who had some
vague, traditional knowledge of their origin, usually
indicated in the persistence of their original desig-
nation, under some such corrupt form as "Molly-
gaster" or " Molly glaster."
The negro proper, to quote again from Sir Harry
Johnston, "is in general a born slave. He is pos-
sessed of great physical strength, docility, cheerful-
ness of disposition, a short memory for sorrows and
cruelties, and an easily aroused" [and I should add
easily dissipated] "gratitude for kindness and just
dealing. He does not suffer from homesickness to
170 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
the overbearing extent that afflicts other peoples torn
from their homes, and, provided he is well fed, he
is easily made happy." The description applies
fairly well to the great mass of negroes who found
r way into the slave markets of the world. It
was true of those on the West Coast who were sent
to America and the West Indies, and likewise of
those farther east who were distributed to other
markets through the island of Zanzibar, — probably
the greatest slave clearing-house of the modern
world. It held good with those who were enslaved
by their neighbors the Hausas, and with those who
were collected in the Sudan and carried north and
east by Arab traders overland to Morocco, Algeria
and Egypt. But it is probable that every slave cara-
van which set out across the desert, and every slave
ship which set out across the sea, had in its comple-
ment some individuals who did not answer to this
description, — some who were not docile or cheerful,
who were not blessed with short memories for
wrongs, who were not happy even when well fed.
"We may, then, state the case of our negro popula-
tion after this wise: It is a mass of people pos-
sessing racial characteristics which enabled it to
submit to slavery with a maximum degree of cheer-
fulness, and without the chafing of other races under
restraint, — which characteristics have also enabled
it to accommodate itself to its anomalous status in
the body of American people since emancipation.
But there has always been in this mass a number
of individuals who differed from the great bulk of
the slave population in respect to native capacity
and general characteristics, and who differ in equal
degree from the mass of that population under free-
dom, Any generalization which may be made as to
THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH. 171
the mass of this population is likely to fail when
applied to these individual types.
The early laws of some of the colonies recognized
the fact that other than negroes had been brought
from Africa into America, and * ' Moors, " or * ' black-
amoors, ' ' were sometimes exempted in specific terms
from the operation of statutes provided for negro
slaves. There were many instances of so-called
"Moors" who achieved considerable local distinc-
tion, though it is always possible that these were
Fulahs or members of other non-negro tribes. One
of the earliest of these was the case of "Job," who
was a slave in Maryland. It was found that he was
an educated man, with a mastery of Arabic, and
Oglethorpe was instrumental in securing his liberty
and sending him to London in 1731. A somewhat
similar case was that of Abdul Bahaman, a "Moor-
ish" slave in Mississippi in the early part of the
Nineteenth century. There was also Omeroh, in
South Carolina, and "Prince Hannibal," in Vir-
ginia, at much later dates. The largest group of
persons of African descent who claim not to be
negroes, and who assert a superiority to the latter,
are the so-called "Moors" of Delaware. These
people have endeavored to hold themselves aloof
from the negroes about them, and in a measure have
succeeded in doing so. One of their racial preju-
dices is against negro teachers in the public schools
allotted them, a prejudice which is usually respected
by assigning them mulatto instructors.
The mention of mulattoes suggests the last, and
a most important, element in our polyglot negro
population. It is important from whatever point
of view we consider it, — whether upon its merits, as
that element which has contributed most to lifting
the race above a status of hopeless intellectual infe-
172 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
riority, or whether as a human document, in con-
sidering the results of racial contact and association.
It is a mistake to regard the mulatto as a being
peculiar to America, or his existence as a reproach
to any particular branch or section of the white
family. Amidst all the confusion over "race prob-
lems" throughout the world, the one patent, indis-
putable fact is that nowhere on earth has the white
man refused to mingle his blood illegitimately with
an inferior race, where masses of the two have been
brought into contact. This has been true of the
Boers in South Africa ; of the English in Australia,
New Zealand and other colonies having a native
population ; of the Spanish and French in the West
Indies and America, North and South; of Ameri-
cans in their own country. In discussing the sub-
ject of racial intermixture between whites and
negroes we seem to lose sight of the extent and
duration of their racial contact, and contract our
vision to a few states on the North American con-
tinent. As a matter of fact the blending process
between the modern negro and the modern white
man was begun on the African coast more than four
hundred and fifty years ago, — when the Portuguese
began to embark upon the trade which was destined
to play so tremendous a role in the history of four
continents and their people. There were mulattoes
in Portgual and Spain half a century before Amer-
ica was discovered, and they were among the classes
the carrying of whom to the New World was at
first forbidden by the Spanish authorities. In
South Africa they became strong enough to create
a sub-tribe many years ago, known as Griquas. In
the Portuguese colonies in West Africa they have
become so numerous as to constitute in some re-
spects the most important element of the popula-
THE KEGRO IN THE SOUTH. 173
tion. They have figured largely in the revolution-
ary affairs of Cuba and of some South and Central
American states. They set up for themselves the
government of Santo Domingo, independent of that
of Haiti, and are the dominent element in Liberia.
They represent the real intelligence of the negroes
of Jamaica, and are classed as ''colored," as dis-
tinguished from the "black" peasant population
of the island. In 1850 they constituted 11.2 per cent,
of the negro population of the United States; 13.2
per cent, in 1860 ; 12.00 per cent, in 1870 ; and 15.2
per cent, in 1890. No separate enumeration of the
mulatto element was attempted in 1900, but it will
probably be tried again in 1910.
Our principal conclusion as to the composition
of the negro population of the Southern states, and
of the country, is that it is made up of quite as
many, and equally as diverse, elements as our white
population. It is impracticable at this day to ascer-
tain the extent to which these various elements enter
into the whole, or the influence which any of them
has exercised in developing the traits and character-
istics of the conglomerate mass which we now desig-
nate the "American negro." Even in the case of
the mulatto element this can be only approximately
done. But in studying this new type, this "Ameri-
can negro," or "negro American," it is of primary
importance that we recognize its complex character,
and not be led astray by the appearance in it of
individuals markedly different from and superior to
the average class. These individuals are more
likely to be evidence of the strength of heredity than
of the general capacity of the mass. They are likely
to be either the result of atavistic influences, bring-
ing to light the superior character of some negro
enslaving, rather than enslaved negro, ancestor, or
174 EACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
the result of an intermixture of white blood. These
individuals may be leaders among the people to
whom unscientific social usage has assigned them,
instruments for good or evil, as their individual
characters may determine. But they tell us no
more of the potentialities of the American negro
class than does the degraded and brutish specimen
of the West African, whom we often meet in the
South, tell us of its permanent limitations.
The Negro Under Slavery.
It is not of particular moment how the negro came
to this country. The prime consideration is the fact
of his presence. Slavery as an institution is treated
elsewhere in this series, but a few words on it are
necessary here. We have stated above that negro
slavery existed in Portugal and in Spain half a cen-
tury before the discovery of America. The trade in
negroes had been carried on by Arabs, between the
Mediterranean and the region South of the Sahara,
for seven hundred years prior to its over-sea begin-
ning by Portugal. The transfer of negro slavery
from Europe to America began in 1501, with the
sending out of Ovando as governor of the island
of Hispaniola. It is suggestive that at first only
slaves "born in the power of Christians" were
allowed to be imported, — thus restricting the new
class of population to European negroes. This
restriction, however, was of short duration, as in
1518 we find the Jeronomite Fathers advising the
importation of "heathen negroes, of the kind of
which we have already experience. ' ' The first slave
trade monopoly granted by Charles V. was for
4,000 negroes in eight years, and was determined
on upon the advice of Las Casas. Negroes were
first taken to the Spanish American mainland about
THE NEGKO IN THE SOUTH. 175
1523-25. They were not carried to the English
North American colonies until 1619, nearly a cen-
tury later. So-called "estimates" of total negro
importations are really little more than guesses.
The number brought into Spanish colonies is put
variously at from 4,500,000 to 7,000,000. The Eng-
lish early became the greatest slave carriers in the
world, and after the assiento of 1713 they supplied
not only their own, but the Spanish colonies as well.
The number of negroes taken into the English con-
tinental and insular possessions during the century
preceding the American revolution has been placed
at approximately 3,000,000. Bancroft estimates
that 300,000 were imported into the thirteen Ameri-
can colonies down to 1776.
From the fog of controversialism which has
enshrouded the subject of negro slavery for so many
years there emerge a few indisputable truths. The
most important of these is that from first to last,
from its introduction into the West Indies to its
introduction and gradual spread in the North Amer-
ican colonies and states, the institution was essen-
tially and fundamentally an economic one. We need
not bother ourselves over the mistake of the good
Las Casas, in recommending negro slavery. His
recommendation would not have brought or kept
one thousand negroes in Hispaniola, if it had not
been supported by the very practical opinion of
others, after a brief experience, that one negro slave
was equal to four Indians in the amount of work he
could do in the mines. So it was when slavery
secured its great foothold in Barbadoes, in the first
half of the Seventeenth century. Negroes were
taken there in large numbers, and the institution of
slavery fostered upon the island, solely because Bar-
badian planters had learned from those of Brazil
176 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
that sugar could be grown with great profit and
success by the use of slave labor. It became a part
of the recognized industrial system of all American
colonies which produced a staple agricultural com-
modity,— whether sugar, tobacco, indigo, rice or cot-
ton. After it had become thus developed and estab-
lished in the British West Indies, and not until
then, it was transferred to the British American
mainland, and became part of the established order
there. Slaves were held in all the colonies, — but
just as slavery as an economic institution was an
invariable part of the industrial system of all staple
producing colonies, so on the other hand 'did it
fail to find a place in the industrial system of those
colonies which did not produce staple crops. The
presence of .a few slaves whose labor was scarcely
more than an incident to their existence, was one
thing; the existence and maintenance of a ''sys-
tem" of slave labor was another, and a very differ-
ent thing. In those colonies in which their labor
was not a necessary feature of the industrial organi-
zation, negroes were relatively few in number and
negro slavery never assumed the characteristic fea-
tures of an "institution." In those in which the
whole industrial economy was based upon and
dependent upon slave labor, a system for the organi-
zation and direction of such labor was an inevitable
and necessary incident, and there slavery became
an * ' institution . ' ' Bearing in mind these elementary
but fundamental principles and distinctions, it is
not difficult for us at once to see that the institution
of slavery never had any real existence in what is
now the United States outside the Southern colonies,
and also to understand why it did not develop else-
where. The abolition of slavery in communities
where the labor of slaves was so insignificant a
THE NEGBO IN THE SOUTH. 177
feature of their industrial life as in the Middle and
Northern colonies, was as natural and easy a proc-
ess as its growth was natural and easy in the colo-
nies further South. The progress or retardation of
slavery was much more than a mere question of poli-
tics or morals, — howsoever much these factors may
have entered into either movement from time to
time.
But what of the influence of this institution and
of the relations which developed under it! As the
institution itself was mainly economic, it is natural
that the economic aspect of it bulks largest in the
perspective of forty-odd years. Just how great a
factor in the industrial life of the colonial and ante-
bellum South was the negro per se will always
remain a mooted question. "What the development
of the South would have been without the negro, —
whether it would have taken a wholly different
course, or moved as rapidly in the one it actually
followed, — had the labor of the South been wholly
white instead of mainly negro, — free instead of
slave, — are questions which will never be answered.
Historians and economists have almost hopelessly
confused the subject of slavery with that of the race
of the slave. It is scarcely possible now to say, if
on the one hand negro slave labor made for the prog-
ress of the South, how much was due to the negro
and how much to slavery, — or, if on the other slav-
ery, made against its progress, where lay the greater
responsibility, upon the system or the race. But
we are here concerned much more with the South-
ern negro than with the Southern white man, and
happily there is no question as to the economic
effect of slavery upon the slave. It is the one aspect
of the entire subject upon which there is not room
for two opinions. Slavery transformed the savage
Vol. 10—12
178 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
negro into a civilized man; it taught him to work,
and showed him what could be accomplished by the
labor of his hands; and then it left him as a free
man with almost a moribpoly of the field in which
he had been employed as a slave. In 1865 no other
body of negroes in the world occupied as advanta-
geous a position economically as those in the South-
ern states.
But in a broad view there was more in the pres-
ence of a great mass of negroes in the South than
the mere results of their labor. It is easy to say
that the white race was necessarily affected by the
contact of millions of another and an inferior race,
but it is difficult to say just how the effects of such
contact were manifested. Here again we touch one
of the controversial aspects of the ante-bellum situ-
ation. Between the extremists who held on one side
that such contact was ennobling to the white man
and beneficial to the negro, and on the other that it
was degrading to both, it may be safe to assume
that neither was altogether right nor altogether
wrong. It was largely a matter of individuals. The
ownership and control of negroes unquestionably
was brutalizing to some, while to others it brought
a sense of responsibility which developed and
ennobled character. For the relatively few negroes
whose employment in the relations of domestic serv-
ice brought them into contact with the best class of
white people, slavery created refining influences
which no other section or group of negroes enjoyed
elsewhere. These are the negroes who are pictured
in the romances which deal with ante-bellum life.
But they were the chosen few, — as compared with
the great mass who lived and died untouched by
such associations. Probably the most that may be
said of the latter was that they were brought by
THE XEGEO IN THE SOUTH. 179
slavery to a knowledge of the English language and
of the Christian religion, such as could otherwise
have been accomplished for an equal number of their
race in Africa only by missionary efforts so tre-
mendous as to have approached the impossible. On
the whole, considered in all its phases, we may
accept the judgment of one of the sanest men who
came out of slavery, — that out of it the negro, as a
racial group, got more than did the white man.
The Free Negro Before 1865.
Before passing to a consideration of the negro
since emancipation, let us glance at the connecting
link between freedom and slavery, — the "free
negro" of the ante-bellum South. This section of
the race is almost invariably ignored in discussions
of the American negro. They formed a group of
which but little is known by the present generation,
and concerning which there was very great diversity
of contemporary opinion.
As far back as we may go in the study of negro
slavery we find that free negroes were invariably
an element in the population. They were in Spain
as early as 1474, and probably some years before.
They appear at an early date in Hispaniola, and
seem to have accompanied every movement of slaves
in the West Indies and on the mainland. They were
provided for simultaneously with negro slaves in
the legislation of the British American colonies.
Notwithstanding laws which were almost invariably
hostile, and despite constant legal efforts to restrict
the emancipation of slaves, the free negro element
steadily increased after the revolution and down
to the outbreak of the war. The census of 1790
returned 700,000 slaves, in round numbers, and
180 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
60,000 negroes in the free class. By 1860 we had a
slave population of 3,950,000, with 488,000 negroes
who were free. The difference between the exist-
ence of laws and their enforcement finds no better
illustration than the case of the free negroes in the
Southern states. Every sort of restrictive and dis-
criminatory law against these people may be pointed
to on Southern statute books; yet these were in the
main dead letters, for which there need be no bet-
ter evidence than the fact that of the above men-
tioned number of free negroes in 1860, more than
half, — 251,000, — lived in the Southern states.
The condition of these people varied from one of
poverty to that of comparative wealth, — just about
as economic conditions vary now. Their general
status, taken as a whole, was better in Louisiana
than anywhere else in the country, North or South.
In 1836, in the city of New Orleans, 855 free people
of color paid taxes on property assessed at $2,462,-
470, and owned 620 slaves. In 1860 the property
holdings of the same class for the state at large were
estimated at from $13,000,000 to $15,000,000. There
were free colored planters in Louisiana whose prop-
erty in land and slaves was valued at from $25,000
to $150,000. Many of these people enjoyed educa-
tional advantages and lived amidst refined sur-
roundings equal to any possessed by their white
neighbors. They were invariably of the mulatto
class, and thus far we have found no instance of a
free negro acquiring either wealth or position.
What was true of conditions in New Orleans and
Louisiana was true also of Baltimore, Charleston,
Mobile, and other less important "free negro" cen-
tres in the South, and of Philadelphia, New York,
and other places in the North. In the aggregate
large numbers of free people made the best of their
THE NEGRO IX THE SOUTH. 181
opportunities and overcame heavy obstacles, — not-
withstanding the general opprobrium in which they
were held as a class. The granting of freedom to
the negro masses meant the extinction of the lines
which had been created by time and condition
between free people of color and negro slaves. In
the dead level of civil equality which followed, the
smaller element was either crushed or swallowed up
by the larger. Save here and there, the two have
coalesced into a common mass.
The Negro Since Emancipation.
The few years of freedom since 1865 are a short
span in the life of the Southern negro since his
ancestors left Africa for Spain, the West Indies and
North America. But it has been ample to prove
the fallacy of predictions as to the future of the race,
made while it was yet in slavery. By one party to
the controversy it was declared that the negro would
dwindle away in numbers, and be wholly unable to
provide for himself, if given freedom. The other
expected him to become at once the equal of the
white man.
Progress is hard to measure when the point of
beginning is undefined and intangible. But the race
has not died out. It has increased from 4,000,000
in 1860 to nearly 9,000,000 in 1900. Not only has it
been able to provide for itself against hunger, but it
has also accumulated some hundreds of millions of
property. But this means little or nothing for the
masses, the great bulk of the race, — save an increase
in numbers. This wealth is far more unequally
divided than among the whites, — and, save what is
probably a per capita pittance, is in the hands of
the mulatto element. And measured by ordinary
standards of physical well being the average negro
182 RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.
of the masses is no whit better provided for to-day
than he was in 1860, — with many not nearly so well
off. But he is free, and it is with him to advance or
go backward.
From 1865 to about 1880 the negro passed through
a period of turbulence which was just the reverse of
what he most needed in his transition from slavery
to freedom. It was a period which not only ham-
pered the normal evolution of his free status, but
which also sowed the seeds of a racial antagonism
which was most inimical to his future welfare. The
most remarkable feature about that period was that
it did not wholly destroy every vestige of the kindly
relations between the races which had existed before
the war. By the close of this period the negro was
no longer an important factor in Southern politics.
Another decade witnessed his total elimination from
a field which had meant for him nothing but strife
and the catspaw's fate.
Since his withdrawal from politics the negro has
been influenced in his life and movements by consid-
erations mainly economic, — where tangible consid-
erations have controlled him at all. He is still
chiefly employed in agriculture and his home is in
the cotton states. One-third of all the negroes in
the United States live in the three states of Georgia,
Mississippi and Alabama. Nearly seven-tenths of
the total live in these and the states of Virginia,
North and South Carolina, Louisiana and Texas,
combined. Notwithstanding the northward move-
ment of which so much is said from time to time, it
remains after all of small significance in considering
the location of this class of our population.
There is a steadily increasing group of educated,
cultured and refined negroes, — corresponding in
relative status to the better class of "free people of
THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH. 183
color" in Louisiana before 1861. The two groups
also possess the similar characteristic of being com-
posed mainly of persons of mixed blood. This group
has given the race its leaders and furnished its bet-
ter professional men; has written its books, many
of them of genuine merit; edits its magazines and
the best of its papers. It is moulding negro thought
in this country, and is working toward the creation
of a negro public opinion. The destinies of the
negro and of the mulatto in America seem insepa-
rably identified. Whatever the future may hold for
the two will likely be shaped by the mulatto ele-
ment,— in so far as it is shaped by either. Both
the opportunity and its responsibilities are theirs.
See also RACIAL PROBLEMS, ADJUSTMENTS AND DIS-
TURBANCES (Vol. IV.), and THE INTELLECTUAL AND
LITERARY PROGRESS OF THE NEGRO (Vol. VII.).
BIBLIOGRAPHY.— DuBois, W. E. B.: The Souls of Black Folk;
Hart, A. B. : Slavery and Abolition; Helps, Arthur: The Spanish
Conquest in America; Hoffman, F. L. : Eace Traits and Tendencies
of the American Negro; Murphy, E. G. : Problems of the Present
South; Stone, A. H. : Studies in the American Eace Problem;
Willcox, Walter F. : Negroes in the United States (Census Bulletin
No. 8) : Washington, Booker T. : Up From Slavery. Publications of
various censuses of Atlanta University, of the American Negro Acad-
emy, of the various American learned societies, and articles under the
title ' ' Negro ' ' in American and English encyclopedias. See also
bibliographies prepared by the Library of Congress, also by W. E. B.
DuBois and that prepared by R. H. Edwards.
ALFRED HOLT STONE,
Author of Studies in the American Eace Problem
PART III.
THE EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF
THE SOUTH.
CHAPTER I.
EDUCATION IN THE SOUTHERN COLONIES.
Conditions and Development.
HE five Southern colonies were Virginia,
Maryland, North Carolina, South Caro-
lina and Georgia. The two Carolinas were
not separated till 1700; and Georgia was
not colonized till 1733. The latter, there-
fore, occupies a subordinate place in the history of
colonial education.
Education in all the colonies of the South followed
substantially the same line of development. There
was first a period of discussion and planning; then
followed the establishment of schools of various
kinds ; and lastly, after the achievement of American
independence, there came an era of educational
activity, during which many academies, colleges and
universities were founded. This last stage of devel-
opment lies beyond the scope of the present article.
The substantial identity of educational work in
all the Southern colonies was a natural result of
similar conditions. There were the same elements
of population, First came the English settlers ; later
184
EDUCATION IN THE COLONIES. 185
followed successive waves of Scotch, Huguenot and
German immigrants. All alike were engaged in the
arduous task of subduing a virgin continent, and
establishing for themselves and their children a per-
manent home. And, lastly, instead of collecting in
towns, they were chiefly engaged in agriculture, and
therefore constituted a rural population.
In this particular the Southern colonists were
unlike their contemporaries of New England. The
latter dwelt together in communities or towns.
Accordingly they were in a better position to estab-
lish and maintain schools than were the colonists of
the South. As we shall see, the educational impulse
was not lacking in the Southern colonies; but the
scattered condition of the population made the estab-
lishment of public schools, throughout a large part
of the territory, an impossible undertaking.
The first census, taken in 1790, throws much light
on this phase of the subject. The population of the
settled area of the United States was sixteen to the
square mile. During the colonial period the popula-
tion in the South was far below that average; and
for a large part of the South this fact made public
schools utterly impracticable.
There was no new or independent educational
development in the Southern colonies. The English
settler brought with him the traditions and customs
of the mother country. Education was regarded as
a private or individual interest. The English planter
hired a tutor for his children ; and after thus giving
them an elementary training, he thought of an
academy or college, after the type of Westminster
or Eton, for their further education. In many cases
the wealthy colonist sent his children abroad to
complete their education.
The Scotch-Irish or Presbyterian colonists, who
spread over Virginia and the Carolinas toward the
186 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
middle of the Eighteenth century, brought with them
the educational interest and activity of their mother
country. Before the founding of Jamestown, Scot-
land had made provision by law for the maintenance
of a school in every parish ; and by an appropriation
from the public treasury it was placed in the power
of the poorest parent to give his children an educa-
tion. Thus it happened, as Macaulay says, ' ' to what-
ever land the Scotchman might wander, in America
or India, he was raised above his competitors."
Many of the best schools of colonial times were
established and maintained by Scotch Presbyterian
ministers or teachers.
Early Interest in Education.
It is surprising to know how early in colonial his-
tory education began to receive attention. Neither
the colonists themselves nor the English companies
that sent them out were indifferent to learning.
Thus the Virginia Company in 1618, eleven years
after the founding of Jamestown, took steps to found
the College of Henrico, and for this purpose set
apart £1,500 and 15,000 acres of land. In 1621 the
Eev. Patrick Copeland raised a fund for opening
a school at Charles City. It was designed to be pre-
paratory to the college of Henrico. But the follow-
ing year these promising plans were cut short by the
Indian massacre that almost annihilated the Virginia
colony.
When we turn to the other Southern colonies we
find similar plans at a very early date. The colony
of Maryland was founded in 1634; and in 1671 a
plan for a college was proposed, but unfortunately
was not carried out on account of the mutual jeal-
ousy or suspicion of the Protestant and Roman Cath-
olic members of the assembly. In 1701, a year after
it became a separate colony, South Carolina pro-
EDUCATION IN THE COLONIES, 187
vided by legislative enactment that every parish
might draw £10 from the public treasury to assist
in the erection of a school house. The first free
school was established a little later in 1710.
Principal Factors.
The religious motive was a principal factor in the
educational movement in the Southern colonies, as
it was in Massachusetts. The missionary spirit is
very apparent in the educational work of the Sev-
enteenth and Eighteenth centuries. The religious
needs of the Indians were constantly in mind. The
college of Henrico, as expressly declared in the
action of the Virginia Company, in 1618, was
designed "for a training up of the children of those
infidels in true religion, moral virtue, and civility,
and for other godliness."* In the charter of William
and Mary College we learn that it was founded "to
the end that the Church of Virginia may be fur-
nished with a seminary of ministers of the Gospel,
and that the youth may be piously educated in good
letters and manners, and that the Christian faith
may be propagated among the western Indians to
the glory of Almighty God."f The Society for Prop-
agating the Gospel in Foreign Parts established
the first schools in South Carolina early in the
Eighteenth century.
But the practical needs of the colonies were also a
strong factor. To the thinkers of the Seventeenth
century education had two principal ends : first, to
qualify men for service in the Church ; and, second,
to fit them for positions in the civil government.
Thus, in an act of the Assembly of Maryland in
1723, we read that "the preceding assemblies for
some years past have had much at heart the absolute
* Neill, English Colonization of America, p. 111.
t History of the College of William and Mary, p. 3.
188 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
necessity * * to make the best provision in
their power for the liberal and pious education of
the youth of this province * * so as to be
fitted for the discharge of their duties in the several
stations and employments they may be called to, and
employed in, either in church or state."* The same
general attitude toward education prevailed in the
other colonies.
Philanthropic Spirit.
In the early history of education in the Southern
colonies, no less than in the Northern colonies, we
discover a remarkable benevolent spirit. The spirit
manifested itself in generous gifts and bequests for
the establishment and maintenance of schools. In
1634 Benjamin Symes, of Elizabeth City county,
Virginia, "devised two hundred acres of land on
Poquoson River, with the milk and increase of eight
cows, for the maintenance of a learned, honest man
to keep, upon the said ground, a free school." A
few years later, in 1659, Thomas Eaton gave "five
hundred acres on Back River, with other properties,
for the support of a free school and an able school-
master to educate and teach the children born within
the county of Elizabeth City." The school estab-
lished by Symes has the distinction of being the
first free school in America. It was later united
with the school established by Eaton; and as the
Symes-Eaton Academy it still maintains a flourish-
ing existence at Hampton. In 1675 Henry Peasley
founded a school in Newport county, Virginia,
endowing it "with six hundred acres of land, ten
cows, and a breeding mare."
The philanthropic spirit was scarcely less active
in the other Southern colonies. In 1684 Augustine
Herman, of Maryland, provided in his will that, in
* Steiner, History of Education in Maryland, p. 22.
EDUCATION IN THE COLONIES. 189
case of the extinction of his lineal heirs, his three
estates should go to the lord proprietary and the
General Assembly "for the use, propagation and
propriety of a free denature school and college"
of the Protestant faith. In 1722 Richard Beresford,
of South Carolina, left the sum of £6,500 currency
to the vestry of the Episcopal church of his parish,
to be held in trust "for the maintenance and edu-
cation of the poor children of the parish." This
endowment is still in effective operation. In 1733
James Childs, of South Carolina, gave £600 for a
school at Chilsbury, whose citizens, moved by this
benevolent example, made an additional subscrip-
tion of £2,200. These are only a few of the gifts
and bequests made in the early colonial period.
Another practical manifestation of the Christian
and philanthropic spirit is found in the establish-
ment of charity schools, which were designed for the
instruction of orphans and other poor children. The
most notable of these enterprises was the Orphan
House at Bethesda, near Savannah, Ga. It was
established by the noted preacher and evangelist,
the Eev. George Whitefield, in 1740. It was sup-
ported by contributions raised by the eloquent foun-
der on missionary tours in the colonies and in Eng-
land. It survived for more than sixty years, and
became a valuable agency in the intellectual and
moral advancement of Georgia. Two of its inmates
afterwards became governors of the state.
In 1750 a charity school was established in Talbot
county, Maryland. The leader of the enterprise waa
the Rev. Thomas Bacon, rector of St. Peter's
parish. "The intent of it," as he explained, "is to
rescue a number of poor children from ignorance,
idleness, vice, immorality and infidelity, and enable
them to be more useful to themselves and the com-
munity they belong to." The school exacted manual
190 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
labor. It was open also to negroes, of whom the
founder of the school declared in a sermon, "They
have souls to be saved as well as others."*
Libraries and Colleges.
The early colonists of the South understood the
educational value of public libraries. Hence we
meet with several individual and united efforts to
provide collections of books. In 1692 Dr. Bray was
sent by the Bishop of London to visit the Episcopal
churches in the colonies ; and not long afterward he
presented the town of Bath, in North Carolina, with
a public library. About 1725 more than sixty vol-
umes were presented by Edward Moseley to the pub-
lic library of Edenton, N. C. The list of books shows
that they consisted chiefly of ponderous works on
theology. The Society for Propagating the Gos-
pel in Foreign Parts was especially active in
establishing libraries.
The most notable library work done in the South-
ern colonies was due to the efforts of the Library
Society of Charleston, S. C., which was organized
in 1748. The Society announced its purpose in the
following words: "As the gross ignorance of the
naked Indian must raise our pity, and his savage
disposition our horror and detestation, it ic our duty
as men, our interest as members of a community,
to take every step, to pursue every method in our
power, to prevent our descendants from sinking into
a similar situation ; to obviate this possible evil, and
to obtain the desirable end of handing down the
European arts and manners to the latest times, is
the great aim of the members of this society. ' 'f The
library founded by this society now numbers more
• Steiner, History of Education in Maryland, p. 34.
t Carroll, Historical Collections of South Carolina, Vol. 11, p. 489.
EDUCATION IX THE COLONIES. 191
than 20,000 volumes, and has an annual income of
more than $2,000.
Among the noteworthy schools that were actually
established in the Southern colonies, the first place
must be assigned to the College of William and
Mary, which was chartered by King William and
Queen Mary in 1693. The initiatory steps looking
to the foundation of a college in Virginia was taken
by the General Assembly as early as 1660, when that
body passed a bill "that for the advance of learning,
education of youth, supply of the ministry and pro-
motion of piety, there be land taken upon purchases
for a college and free school."*
Before the Rev. James Blair went abroad to pro-
cure the charter of the college a considerable inter-
est was taken in the enterprise at home. The lieuten-
ant-governor headed a subscription list with a gener-
ous gift, and his example was followed by many
other prominent members of the colony. Even Sir
William Berkeley, who thanked God that there were
no free schools or printing in the colony, promoted
the subscription to the college.
When the Rev. James Blair went to England to
intercede for a charter some £2,500 had already been
subscribed in Virginia for the founding of the col-
lege. For the further support of the institution,
their majesties turned over to the college the quit-
rents yet due in the colony, amounting to nearly
£2,000, and set apart 2,000 acres of land for its bene-
fit. For its support they also laid a tax of a penny a
pound on all tobacco exported from Virginia and
Maryland to the other American colonies.
The College of William and Mary was located
at Williamsburg, and the Rev. James Blair was
fittingly named in the charter as its first president.
For many years it nobly fulfilled its purpose. It
* History of Mie College of William and Mary, p. 34.
192 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
not only supplied the Episcopal Church with its
most worthy ministers for a long time, but also fur-
nished the colony and afterwards the nation with
some of their ablest leaders and statesmen.
While Lord Baltimore appointed the governors
of Maryland, little or nothing was done for the estab-
lishment of schools. But a change came with Gov-
ernor Nicholson. With the view of supplying the
Church of England with a succession of ministers,
he had a law passed in 1696 for establishing a school
in every county. At this time a school was begun at
Annapolis, to which the Governor and the House of
Burgesses contributed liberally. It was called King
William's school, and was designed to teach "arith-
metic, navigation, and all useful learning." It was
intended also to prepare divinity students for the
College of William and Mary.
Establishment of Other Schools.
In North Carolina the establishment of schools by
the colonial government was somewhat belated. In
1736 Governor Johnston, in his address to the legis-
lature, lamented the fact that no provision had been
made "to inspire the. youth with generous senti-
ments, worthy principles,- or the least tincture of
literature." In 1775, at the end of the Eoyal Gov-
ernment, there were but two noteworthy schools in
the whole province, one at Newbern and the other
at Edenton. In 1770 a charter was obtained from
the Provincial Assembly for the establishment of
the Queen's Museum at Charlotte; and this institu-
tion, though its charter was repealed by the king,
continued to flourish. Later it was known as Liberty
Hall (1777).
About 1767 a private school that afterwards
acquired a wide reputation was opened by David
Caldwell in Guilford county, North Carolina. He
EDUCATION IN THE COLONIES. 193
was educated at Princeton, and entered the ministry
of the Presbyterian Church. l ' His log cabin, ' ' it has
been said, "served for many years to North Caro-
lina as an academy, a college and a theological
seminary." This school educated many young men
whG afterwards became distinguished in the various
callings of life.
The constitution of North Carolina adopted in
1776 declared that a school or schools shall be
established, and that "all useful learning shall be
duly encouraged and promoted in one or more uni-
versities." Accordingly in 1789 the University of
North Carolina was incorporated, and three years
later the institution was located at Chapel Hill,
where it has since remained as a flourishing
university.
Mention has already been made of the early estab-
lishment of schools in South Carolina through the
active interest and liberality of Richard Beresford
and James Child. To these may be added the school
at Dorchester, which was established by an act of
the legislature in 1734. It was provided "that the
master of said school shall teach the
learned languages, Latin and Greek tongues, and
* catechise and instruct the youth in the prin-
ciples of the Christian religion." It is expressly
stated that the motive of this act was the de.sire
manifested by the parents of Dorchester to have
their children "instructed in grammar and othe?
liberal arts and sciences."
During the colonial period no college was estab-
lished in South Carolina. But through its publio
and private schools "the means of education were
placed within the reach of all." The interest in
education continued during the troubled period of
the Revolution; and at the close of hostilities "there
* Meviwether, History of Hipher Education in South Carolina, p. 23.
*1. 10—13
194 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
were eleven public and three charitable grammar
schools, and eight private schools, of which we know ;
that is, twenty-two schools in the twenty-four
parishes and districts into which the state was
divided."*
Rural Schools and Education of Girls.
Not much can be said in praise of the rural neigh-
borhood schools. The school houses were often rude
log structures with clapboard roofs and split-log
benches. The schoolmasters were, in many cases,
not men of large literary attainments. But in schools
of every class the discipline was severe. Both
patrons and teachers believed heartily in the precept
of Solomon touching the use of the rod; and, as a
result, whipping was the ordinary form of punish-
ment for offenses of all kinds. In this merciless
use of the rod there was little regard for age or sex ;
young men and children, boys and girls, were all
alike severely punished.
The education of girls was simple. In no part of
our country, indeed, had it reached the advanced
character of to-day. The daughter of the wealthy
landowner received her instruction at home under a
governess or in the select school kept by the minister
of the parish. Besides reading, writing, and ele-
mentary mathematics, her education embraced a lit-
tie French, embroidery and painting. There was
instruction in music sufficient to render the simple
melodies then in vogue. But if the young women of
colonial days were deficient in the knowledge of
books and arts, they understood domestic science,
and acquired the social graces of a charming manner
and sparkling conversation. The social functions
of Virginia and the other Southern colonies were
often brilliant affairs.
*-McCrady, Education in South Carolina, p. 34.
EDUCATION IN THE COLONIES. 195
The primary course of instruction embraced the
usual elementary branches, such as reading, writing,
arithmetic and grammar. But in the academies or
schools of secondary instruction Latin and Greek
and the higher mathematics received especial atten-
tion. Owing to the large number of young men edu-
cated abroad, the humanistic training of the great
public schools and universities of England was held
in high esteem. Accordingly we find that Dr. Sam-
uel Miller, of Princeton, expressed the belief in 1808
that "the learned languages, especially the Greek,
were less studied in the Eastern than in the South-
ern and Middle States, and that while more individ-
uals attended to classical learning there than here, it
was attended to more superficially."* And Hugh
S. Legare says that before and just after the Revo-
lution "there can be no doubt their attainments in
polite literature were very far superior to those of
their contemporaries at the North, and the standard
of scholarship in Charleston was consequently much
higher than in any other city on the continent."
BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Adams: Thomas Jefferson and the University of
Virginia (Bureau of Education); Bancroft: History of the United
States; Campbell: History of Virginia; Carroll: Historical Collec-
tions of South Carolina; Howison: History of Virginia; Jones:
Education in Georgia (Bureau of Education); MeCrady: Education
in South Carolina (Bureau of Education) ; McMaster: History of
the People of the United States; Meriwether: History of Higher
Education in South Carolina (Bureau of Education); Neill: Eng-
lish Colonization in America; Smith: History of Education in North
Carolina (Bureau of Education); Steiner: History of Education in
Maryland (Bureau of Education) ; History of the College of William
and Mary.
FRANKLIN VEBZELIUS NEWTON PAINTER,
Professor of Pedagogy, BoanoTce College, Salem, Va.
» Quoted in Meriwether, History of Higher Education in South Caro-
lina, p. 27.
196 EDUCATIONAL LIF1 OF THE SOUTH.
CHAPTER II.
EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH BEFORE
THE WAR.
Conditions and Limitations of Southern Educational
Efforts.
?N the discussion of educational interests and
educational work in the various parts of the
Union, from the colonial period to 1861 and
later, a proper account has not usually been
taken of the conditions and limitations which con-
trolled educational effort in the various sections.
The states at large are, by the facts, divided into
three groups, characterized respectively by special
conditions and special modes of development.
In the New England states, from colonial times,
the population has been generally more densely
aggregated than elsewhere. The town or township
early became the unit in civil government, and
readily afforded pupils and material support for
local schools. Homogeneous population and small
farms made local taxation for such schools a logical
and economic procedure, so that in any township
where a school was really desired it could be main-
tained at the public expense. The only hindrance
to such educational development under these con-
ditions would be a lack of proper interest or of
proper supervision.
In the newer states northwest of the Ohio and west
of the Mississippi at the time of settlement Con-
gress set apart one section of land in every town-
ship for the maintenance of elementary schools and
a grant of two townships in each for a seminary of
learning — more than one-thirty-sixth part of all the
lands in each state. Texas made practically the same
EDUCATION BEFORE THE WAR. 197
arrangement with her lands. Material foundation
for elementary schools was thus laid in each state
before the population came, and as these north-
western states were filled rapidly with a vigorous
and homogeneous and prosperous population, public
schools of every grade, from the primary to the
university, were a natural and comparatively easy
development.
In the states from Maryland southward, condi-
tions were different. That there was no lack of
interest in education in the earliest times is shown
by the fact that efforts were made, from the very
first settlement, for founding schools and colleges in
the Southern colonies and states bordering on the
Atlantic. It was necessary for success that these
efforts should be adapted to local conditions a-nd
environment. "If the Massachusetts law of 1647,
that every township of fifty householders should
appoint one 'to teach all such children as should
resort to him to write and read,' had been enforced
in Maryland, it would not have resulted in the estab-
lishing of a single school, since no portion of the
province was thickly enough settled to have fifty
householders in an area equal to a New England
township. Annapolis, about 1700, contained about
forty dwelling houses, and St. Mary's was never
more than a village. Other towns were such only in
name, and their claim to the name lay in the fact
that they were ports of entry. Governor Berkeley's
reply to the question of the commissioners of foreign
plantations as to what course was taken in Virginia
for instructing the people in the Christian religion :
'The same that is taken in England out of towns,
every man according to his ability instructing his
children,' will answer as well for Maryland."*
:' History of Education in Maryland, United States Bureau of Educa-
tion Circular of Information No. II, 1904.
198 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
In the Southern colonies the land holdings were
generally large. The distribution of population
made the New England plan for township support
of schools impracticable. The idea that every man
according to his ability should provide for the edu-
cation of his own children was deeply rooted. The
employment of private tutors for the training of the
children in one or more families, the agency of the
church and parish in organizing schools and in look-
ing after the interest of poor children, the organiza-
tion of local societies for promoting education of
poor children as well as others, and the endowment
of schools for the training of poor children, mark
the direction in which educational effort in the
Southern colonies was thus forced by unavoidable
circumstances. In colonial days and immediately
after the American Revolution, public interest
brought about the foundation of many academies,
where young men were trained in classical learning,
and a number of institutions classed as colleges.
Institutions in Virginia.
In Virginia as early as 1609, was planned and
organized the first institution in America aspiring
to be a college or university. This was Henrico
College on the James Eiver, endowed with 10,000
acres of land, to which Hargrave, an Episcopal
clergyman, gave his library, as much as John Har-
vard later gave to Harvard University. The mas-
sacre of 1622 put an end to this enterprise, and to
the East India School organized as preparatory to
the college. William and Mary College in Virginia,
which ranks next in age after Harvard University,
still exists. In the state of Virginia, Hampden-
Sidney College (1777), Washington and Lee Uni-
versity (1782), the University of Virginia (1825),
Randolph-Macon College (1829), Richmond College
EDUCATION BEFOKE THE WAR. 199
(1832), Emory and Henry College (1835), Virginia
Military Institute (1839), Roanoke College (1843),
are institutions which, each in its proper sphere,
have afforded opportunities which were not sur-
passed, in the days before the War of Secession, in
any state in the Union. The University of Virginia,
from its foundation, has ranked among the foremost
institutions in America in scholarship and influence.
These higher institutions were supplemented by
dozens of private seminaries and academies which
gave the necessary preparation to boys intending
to enter college, and advanced training to girls and
young women.
Maryland.
In Maryland conditions were similar. Saint Johns
College and Washington College were combined into
one state institution in 1785, as the first University
of Maryland. Other institutions, including a college
of medicine, of law, of divinity, and of arts and
sciences, were organized after 1805 into the second
University of Maryland. Besides these, at least ten
denominational schools and colleges, which were
organized from 1784 to 1843, afforded large means
for higher education. These institutions were sup-
plemented by a number of private academies and
lower schools maintained by churches, parishes and
educational societies, chiefly for poor children.
North Carolina.
In North Carolina, the first settlers, largely
Scotch-Irish, along with their churches built schools
and academies. These academies were found in
almost every community, and afforded excellent
opportunities for classical training. In the first
constitution for the state, adopted in 1776, provision
was made for the founding of a state university, and
200 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
this institution was incorporated in 1789, and the
cornerstone was laid in 1793. It has continued to do
a large work and to maintain high standards. A
published list of those who studied in the university
before 1835, and who afterwards became distin-
guished shows more than a hundred names in the
highest positions in church and state — senators,
congressmen, judges, bishops and college profes-
sors— in many states. Davidson College (1835).
Wake Forest College (1838), Trinity College (1838)',
besides a number of other colleges for young men
and young women, under private or denominational
control, afforded facilities for higher training, and
their pupils were prepared in elementary schools
and academies which were numerous throughout
the state. North Carolina, as did the other Southern
states, accumulated a fund known as the Literary
Fund, derived from various sources, and for use
in the training of poor children.
In 1838 North Carolina established a system of
public education under which it was proposed to
have the state divided into 1,250 school districts, to
have a normal department for the training of teach-
ers as at the university, and to use the income of the
Literary Fund and local taxation for the mainte-
nance of these schools. "The scheme provided only
for common schools, and left academies to succeed
these at no long interval, and colleges and universi-
ties in due time to crown the whole." Before this
system was put in operation "in 1840 there were
two colleges (including the university), 141 acad-
emies and grammar schools, 632 primary and com-
mon (county) schools, making a total of 775 edu-
cational institutions. The number of students in
attendance was as follows: At colleges, 158; at
academies, 4,398 ; at other schools, 14,937 ; making a
EDUCATION BEFOEE THE WAK. 201
total of 19,483." From the amounts expended and
the length of the term of the public schools in 1840,
North Carolina compared favorably with many of
the New England and northwestern states, and the
public school system continued to increase in effi-
ciency up to the outbreak of the war. Conditions
in North Carolina as to population and public senti-
ment were more favorable to the development of a
public school system than in other Southern states.
South Carolina.
In South Carolina, from the earliest colonial
times, there was no lack of wholesome and vigorous
interest in education. The first white settlers were
generally well-to-do planters. In the colonial days
these men not infrequently sent their sons to the
English universities for training. They kept in
closer touch with the mother country than the resi-
dents of other colonies, and many of the men who
became prominent in the affairs of the colony, and
of the state in its earlier days, were educated in
England, A published statement of the names of
Americans who were admitted to the London bar
in the Eighteenth century, to 1785, shows a total
of 114, and that forty-four of these were from South
Carolina. The influence of these men and their
families upon education in the colony was strongly
felt. The act for the organization of South Caro-
lina College was passed in 1801. Probably no insti-
tution in America has exerted a finer influence. In
1862 its requirements for admission were fully as
high as those in Harvard and Yale, and apparently
in excess of those required in Columbia University
at that time. Thomas Jefferson chose it for his
grandsons to attend in preference to any other eol-
* Smith. C. L. : History of Education in North Carolina (United
States Bureau of Education).
202 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
lege in America. While the number of students was
never very large, the total number of graduates from
1806 to 1861 being 1,740, there is probably no college
in America which has trained a larger proportion of
men who became distinguished in the affairs of the
state and the nation. Among these were twenty-two
governors of states, fourteen United States senators,
eight lieutenant-governors, thirty-nine United States
and Confederate States representatives, thirty-three
judges and chancellors, fifteen presidents of colleges,
thirty-nine professors in colleges, besides many
others who became distinguished in church and
state. The results of the training given in other
state universities in the Southern states, from Mary-
land to Mississippi, in the years preceding 1861,
were similar, if not so striking as in this older
institution, and these results emphatically refute the
statement that in this earlier period persons desir-
ing higher education necessarily sought it outside
these states. 'Academies and schools endowed by
individuals or by charitable societies or by religious
denominations were common throughout the state
of South Carolina from the days of the Eevolution.
Higher institutions came into existence early. Be-
sides the College of South Carolina were the Col-
lege of Charleston (1785), Erskine College (1825),
Furman University (1825), Wofford College (1851),
and numerous academies and schools. No classical
academy in the country has a more honored history
than Willington Academy under the famous teacher,
Moses Waddel, from 1804 to 1819. The beginnings
of a public school system were made in 1811,
although free schools were established in Charleston
in 1710.
Georgia.
In Georgia, as early as 1764, the Eev. George
EDUCATION BE^OEE THE WAR. 203
Whitefield urged the establishment of Bethesda Col-
lege. Failing in this he urged the establishment of
Bethesda Academy, which after a few years was
destroyed by a hurricane and fire. Academies in
Eichmond county, at Sunbury, and other places,
were established before 1810, and under the manage-
ment of churches and benevolent societies, afforded
excellent opportunity for classical training. Pre-
vious to 1821 funds had been accumulated for the
support of free schools throughout the state, and in
1821 the General Assembly provided for the division
of $500,000 equally between the academies and free
schools. These funds were used for the maintenance
of "poor scholars" in these schools. The University
of Georgia was organized by an act of the Assembly
passed Jan. 27, 1785, 40,000 acres of wild land in
the northern part of the state being appropriated
for its support. Franklin College, a department of
the university, at Athens, was opened in 1801. It
has from that time exerted a splendid influence upon
education in the state. Denominational colleges and
private institutions for young men and for young
women were numerous. Mercer University (1831),
Oglethorpe University (1835), Emory College (1836),
with about fifteen colleges and institutes for young
women, afforded excellent opportunity for classical
training.
The influence of leading citizens in the five states
above mentioned, during the colonial period and
later, served to set a high estimate upon education,
and as an incentive to every parent to seek its
advantages for his children. In all the agencies thus
existing opportunity was afforded for poor boys to
secure advancement, and probably no poor boy desir-
ing an education necessarily failed for lack of
opportunity.
204 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
Tennessee.
In Tennessee, formed out of lands ceded to Con-
gress by North Carolina, the spirit which existed
in North Carolina largely controlled educational
effort. The University of Nashville (1806 and
1826), and East Tennessee College, now the Uni-
versity of Tennessee (1806), received large grants
of lands from Congress and have continued to exert
a wide and wholesome influence on education from
their inception. The Southwestern Baptist Uni-
versity (1846), Cumberland University (1842),
Greenevillc College (1794), Maryville College (1819),
represent denominational effort for higher education
before the war. Tennessee received from Congress
a part of the public domain within her borders foi
education. These lands could not be located in each
township before settlement, and thus the basic sup-
port for common schools in each township was not
available. Such schools were not founded in each
township, and elementary training was left to pri-
vate and church and local enterprises. Under these
influences many schools of elementary and academic
grade were founded and prospered.
Kentucky.
Kentucky was not so fortunate in the matter of
land grants for schools and colleges, but the early
interest of her people in Transylvania University
(the first college west of the Alleghanies), in Center
College, and in many private and denominational
schools, early drew many people from the pioneer
settlements of the southwest. Educational sentiment
largely followed that in the parent state, Virginia.
Before the separate organization of Kentucky,
Virginia gave 8,000 acres of land for an academy,
and 20,000 acres for Transylvania University. The
EDUCATION BEFOKE THE WAR. 205
legislature of Kentucky early gave 6,000 acres or
more of land to each of about forty county acad-
emies. As the basis and beginning of an educational
system these did not realize expectations. A general
public school system provided for under the law of
1838 did not affect all the counties before 1853.
As elsewhere in the South, denominational and
private enterprises developed many good academies,
and the two colleges above named exerted a wide
and wholesome influence, extending far beyond the
limits of the state.
Other States.
In Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Arkansas and
Louisiana, the development of education was under
special conditions. These states were settled in the
first half of the Nineteenth century, chiefly by immi-
grants from the Southern states lying east of them.
These immigrants were generally owners of prop-
erty, bringing with them slaves and taking up large
tracts of land for the cultivation of cotton. They
came in communities, often bringing their minister
and establishing churches and schools where they
located. Deep interest in education of all grades
was manifested from the first. These states were
formed out of the public domain, and to each of
them Congress gave one thirty-sixth part of the
public domain for school purposes. In 1802, when
Alabama and Mississippi constituted the Mississippi
Territory, Jefferson College, near Natchez, was
founded. It still exists. The state universities were
established in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana,
and many private academies and denominational
schools and colleges were developed. The large
holdings of land by individuals caused a sparse dis-
tribution of the white population in rural com-
munities and was a serious obstacle to the develop-
206 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
ment of elementary public schools. But most of the
white settlers were people of means, or speedily
acquired means in the new states, and under the
incentive of the spirit which pervaded all the South-
ern states, and which made it a disgrace for any
father not to give his children the means of educa-
tion, private schools flourished and in these, through
the use of the Literary Funds in the states, oppor-
tunity was afforded for elementary instruction of
poor children. In all this it should be remembered
that nearly half the population of the Southern
states consisted of negro slaves, for whom religious
opportunities, but not schools, were afforded. While
educational opportunity was available for most of
the white children it was not generally offered
through any completely organized system in these
states. Therefore a mere statistical comparison
of the recorded number of schools, of the public
funds for education, and of the pupils enrolled in
the South, with corresponding figures in the eastern
and northwestern states, must be unfair to the
Southern states.
Educational and Intellectual Development a Factor in Development
of Nation.
It cannot be denied that during the first half cen-
tury of the Republic Southern intellect and South-
ern statesmanship were dominant in public affairs.
The men who wielded this influence were trained
in the schools and in the social life of the South.
That there was opportunity for intellectual devel-
opment is shown by the educational facilities above
stated. But not alone in schools are men trained for
leadership. Every well ordered plantation home
was a school for practical training.
Agriculture, the raising of cotton, grain, tobacco
and rice, by the use of negro slave-labor, was the
EDUCATION BEFORE THE WAR. 207
common profession of the more vigorous white men.
This calling demanded certain material opportuni-
ties, and certain masterful traits of character that
were cultivated and transmitted from father to son.
When the lands in Maryland, Virginia, the Caro-
linas and Georgia became exhausted, as soon they
did under severe and uneconomical methods, the
more vigorous planters, with their negro laborers,
sought fresh and fertile lands newly vacated by the
Indians in the states south and west. Negro labor
then as now was concentrated on the best agricul-
tural lands in these states. The poorer whites were
largely left in the worn out sections of the Atlantic
slope, or were stranded in the coves of the Appa-
lachian Mountains, or settled on the more undesir-
able and cheaper lands in the regions further south.
This distribution and segregation of population,
due mainly to economic causes, left certain classes
of whites at a disadvantage as to schools and educa-
tional opportunity in the Southern states as in other
states. In towns, in rural communities which were
prosperous, children of the poor, under the provi-
sions existing, shared in the school privileges which
were maintained by those who had means.
Out of the diverse and varied opportunities and
means for the training of the youth of the Southern
states before the war were developed a people who
were foremost in the American Revolution, who
were pioneers in seizing the opportunities for the
enlargement of the nation in the west and south-
west, who subdued the wilderness from the Atlantic
to the Ohio and Mississippi and beyond, who were
leaders in the councils of the nation, and who, in
the defense of their rights under the constitution,
showed in the conflict of 1861-65 a heroism, endur-
ance and military skill that remains the wonder of
the ages, and is an exhibition of the character and
208 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
achievement of a people only rivalled by the forti-
tude and heroic endeavor with which the survivors
and their descendants undertook to repair the rav-
ages and consequences of that conflict. These
results were potential in, and were made possible by,
the education and the intellectual and religious life
of the Southern people before the war.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Adams, Herbert B. (ed.): Contributions to Amer-
ican Educational History, published by the United States Bureau of
Education in the form of monographs, No. I on the "College of
William and Mary," No. II, "Thomas Jefferson and the University
of Virginia," and others of the series on the history of education in
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and the other Southern
states. Reference to authorities in these cover all sources of in-
formation.
EGBERT BURWELL FULTON,
Superintendent The Miller School, Virginia; formerly
Chancellor University of Mississippi and President
Southern Educational Association.
CHAPTER III.
EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH SINCE THE
WAE.
T is impossible to understand economic and
social movements in the South since the War
between the States, and especially the spirit
informing educational progress, unless we
recall the dominant forces in the Nineteenth century
and the South 's relation to them. A brief his-
torical retrospect becomes therefore necessary in
orcjer to appreciate the serious task which the school
in the South is set to do.
In the Atlantic Ocean yonder there is only one
Gulf current, but in the Nineteenth century there
vere three such currents. These streams of tend-
EDUCATION BEFORE THE WAR. 209
ency are as traceable, as measurable, and as potent
in their influence as that resistless river in the sea.
What, now, were these three tendencies in the
Nineteenth century?
I. The Liberal Tendency.
The liberal tendency of that age was both the
strongest and the most easily discernible. The
French Revolution, which ushered in our age, was a
frenzy for freedom. Before the onrush of its eman-
cipating spirit there went down in irretrievable ruin
the absolutist governments which had so long held
in bondage the continent of Europe. Stein's mem-
orable edict of Oct. 9, 1807, abolishing serfdom in
Prussia, is not so much an achievement of individual
genius as the concrete expression of the difference
between the old and new 'social order. Other coun-
tries followed perforce, Mexico liberating her slaves
in 1827, England in 1833, and even Eussia freeing
her serfs in 1861. The odious distinctions of feudal-
ism, with the obsolete privileges of the aristocrat,
were one after another swept away ; equality for all
before the law was established ; liberal constitutions
were wrested from autocratic rulers ; the press was
unmuzzled ; labor was unshackled ; in a word, democ-
racy replaced despotism. It is pleasing to recall
that it was our fathers of 1776 who intoned the
dominant note of that creative century. Jefferson's
Declaration of Independence was the prelude to the
French Revolution with all of its liberalizing
influences.
II. The National Tendency.
The national tendency in that period was hardly
less insistent than the liberal. The two forces, the
liberal and the national, though separable, were usu-
ally found working in unison. Nationality is to a
people what personality is to a man. The desire
of each race to set up housekeeping for itself, to live
Fol. 10—14
210 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
under its own vine and fig tree, to feel the full force
of the spirit of kinship in its unifying effect, to
attain to conscious racial solidarity — this intense
and spontaneous yearning for nationality was to
transform the map of Europe within a brief time.
We can note only the results. Heroic Greece led off
in 1829 ; Belgium succeeded the following year, Hol-
land being individualized at the same time ; Italy and
Germany achieved their nationality in 1870; eight
years thereafter Roumania, Servia and Montenegro
reached the same goal, while only yesterday Norway
and Bulgaria were nationalized. Even the failures
of Poland, Ireland, Hungary and Bohemia, despite
heroic struggles to form nations, go to show the
drift of events. The stars in their courses fight for
progress. Nationality has shown itself an electric
spirit.
III. The Industrial Tendency.
The industrial tendency of that era was also
marked. Invention kept pace with liberty and nation-
ality. On Jan. 5, 1769, James Watt announced his
patent "for a method of lessening the consumption
of steam and fuel in fire engines"; and this fact
may be regarded as the natal day of the Industrial
Eevolution. England leaped to the fore in manufac-
turing enterprise, starting the transition in all pro-
gressive countries from the exclusively agricultural
to the industrial status. That same year, 1769, Ark-
wright's "frame" superseded the spinning- jenny.
In 1787 a Kentish clergyman devised the power-
loom. Six years later Eli Whitney invented the cot-
ton-gin. What changes followed may be faintly sug-
gested by recalling the fact that in 1784 an American
ship landed eight bales of cotton at Liverpool, and
the custom-house officers seized them, on the score
that cotton was not a product of the United States.
Coal, steam, steel, cotton, electricity — these made a
EDUCATION SINCE THE WAE. 211
new earth, giving magic wealth and power to nations
in the van, such as England, Germany and France
Society became dominantly industrial.
The Isolation of the South.
Circumstances — cruel circumstances which bring
tears at the thought — had shut the South out of a
share in these three mighty influences of that cen-
tury. Destiny seemed to have arrayed her against
them, in spite of the fact that during the American
Revolution the South 's own sons were pioneers in
the advocacy of national and liberal measures Such
is the pathos and irony of our civil tragedy. Madi-
son, writing the word National nineteen times in his
first draft of the constitution; Washington, putting
the stamp of his personality upon the Federal execu-
tive ; Marshall, giving effect to the Federal judiciary,
and Jefferson, drafting the ordinance of 1784,
excluding slavery from the western territory — these
men and measures appeared prophetic of a role for
the South the reverse of what ensued. The shift in
the scenes was made by Whitney's cotton-gin,
rendering slavery profitable in the planting of cotton.
As a result, the South found itself at variance with
the rapid changes which were sweeping over the
world about the middle of the Nineteenth century.
By this train of circumstances the South was led
(1) To hold on to slavery in opposition to the liberal
tendency of the age; (2) To resort to secession in
opposition to "nationality ; (3) To be content with
agriculture alone, instead of embracing the rising
industrialism.
It was an instance of arrested development. The
facts do not permit us to escape this conclusion, not-
withstanding the nobility, chivalry, and gracious
charm in the life of the old South which all must love
and admire. It was these historic forces — the lib-
212 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
eral, the national and the industrial — that won at
Appomattox, in spite of the genius of Lee, the hero-
ism of his soldiers, and the sacrifices of Southern
women.
The Three Tasks of the South.
If this be the interpretation of the confused forces
in that time that tried men's souls, then the three
tasks confronting the South on the threshold of the
new era become plain. These tasks were eco-
nomic development, national integration and racial
adjustment.
(1) Economic development had reference to the
farm as well as the factory. The recovery of the
exhausted fertility of the soil, improved methods in
agriculture, mining, the introduction of factories, the
improvement of highways, railroads and harbors—
these were some of the aspects of material growth
awaiting the elastic energies of the South. Indus-
trialism and the enrichment of rural life went hand
in hand. Bravely did the people address themselves
to these inviting labors. Incitement abounded. The
mild climate, the wide acreage, vast forests,
untouched mineral resources, abundant water-power,
cheap and plentiful labor, navigable rivers and
numerous harbors, were inspiring assets in the pro-
gram of progress. Especially did the fibre of the
cotton plant challenge the industrial ingenuity of the
South. When the grain-grower of the West has
ground his wheat, he has reached the limit of what
skill can do. Not so with the texture of cotton. Its
fibres lend themselves to limitless skill and artistic
talent of a creative character. Eealizing this, a
Virginian at the close of the war locked up the des-
tiny of the South in a single sentence : "If cotton is
ever king, its sceptre will be a spindle." The alac-
rity with which the people have responded to this
unique industrial opportunity appears in the fact
EDUCATION SINCE THE WAR. 213
that South Carolina to-day stands second only to
Massachusetts in the number of cotton spindles
operated. Similar advances have been made in
manufactures in wood, leather and iron, not to
instance the progress attained in almost every form
of material development.
(2) The task of national integration was tliQ
legacy of the War between the States. Appornattos
determined merely the fact that all the sections of
this country are to be held together by the political
bond. But deeper than this and more necessary thai]
this is the sympathy that welds peoples into an
organic union, through the feeling of loyalty to com-
mon ideals and the knowledge of common interests.
Like-mindedness is essential to democracy. The
making of a national spirit, therefore, became the
charted course of the South. The example of
Robert E. Lee in this respect, as in all else, was a
polar star. Localism and nationalism both have
inherent virtue, and the reconciliation of the two is
the duty of this day, as was the reconciliation of
order and liberty the work of our fathers. When
you contrast the age-long animosities resulting from,
the Cromwellian period in England, you can appre-
ciate the spirit of reconciliation in America whidi
followed within forty years after the war, despite
the blunders of reconstruction. The effort of the
South to be released from its political isolation and
to resume its rightful part in national responsibil-
ities must necessarily succeed, since this region is
loyally devoted to the flag of our great republic.
(3) Eacial adjustment is the distinctive task of
the South. How to enable two races as diverse as
the whites and blacks to live upon the same soil in
the spirit of mutual helpfulness is a problem that
taxes the utmost resources of the statesman and
the Christian. Difficult it would have been, if it
214 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
had been presented in its simplest form; aggravated
as the racial situation in the South now is by the
effects of war and reconstruction, it seems to saga-
cious students of affairs, like John Morley, as a veri-
table Sphinx's riddle. Yet this problem conditions
the life of the cotton states. Slavery was merely
one stage in the continuous effort of racial adjust-
ment. It is becoming more and more plain that the
negro question does not lend itself to treatment by
the quick stroke of a surgeon's knife, as some were
once fain to conceive; but it is to be worked out
through long and slow social processes. Hence it
is that in the rearing of a backward race we are
trusting more and more confidently to the influence
of training — training in the habit of work, in thrift,
in self-reliance, and, in a word, in the basal lessons
of life. In the ascent from savagery to civilization
the negro under slavery -mderwent a discipline that
stood him in good stead for the higher duties open-
ing to him in freedom. That discipline having
passed away as obsolete, the chief burden of the
development of the black man falls upon the school.
The school must therefore supply all the elements
of training which the plantation under the old order
afforded to the slave, and in addition must fit the
negro for freedom by energizing his will, conscience,
respect for law, and desire to live at peace with his
neighbors.
The African is not to be regarded as the Achilles'
heel of American destiny. I have faith to believe
that his presence here is of divine ordering, and
that as he has had his part in the material develop-
ment of the South, so he will eventually find his
rightful place in the scheme of civilization. In the
carrying forward of the processes of racial adjust-
ment it is now recognized upon all hands that reason,
conscience, and experience must be supreme in all
EDUCATION SINCE THE WAR. 215
matters pertaining to public policy, and that racial
self-respect demands social segregation.
Three Educational Advances.
It was early discerned that all three of these tasks
of the South — economic development, national inte-
gration and racial adjustment — had to be worked
out through the school. Education is therefore the
epitome of the South 's problem. In accordance with
these stern practical demands, progress in education
has been made along three distinct lines: (1) In
the schooling of the "poor whites"; (2) In the
democratizing of the ideals of the higher institu- -
tions of learning; (3) In the training of the negro.
As one has pointed out, under the old order in the
South, slavery lifted about one million people to a
position of privilege, while five or six million hum-
bler folk, the so-called "poor whites," were disad-
vantaged. Of course, beneath this social structure
were about four million black slaves. The educa-
tional facilities then existing were naturally adapted
to the needs and ideals of the ruling class — large
planters, merchants, and the professional guilds.
The school was the counterpart of society, which
was feudal. This fact appears in the system of home
tuition, the superb private academy, and the clas-
sical university, all of which converged to develop
in the dominant class a culture of a high and
exclusive type.
V \.
In marked contrast to these aristocratic seats of
learning of the former period stands the democratic
system of schools which has been elaborated since
the war, in order to minister to the immediate needs
of the masses of the people. It is from this view-
point that we can best understand the purposeful-
ness of the school in the present South. It throbs
to-day with an energy that is not aimless, but
216 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
directed toward a self-set goal. The school makes for
efficiency ; it represents a thorough-going social proc-
ess; it constitutes a program of progress. Almost
every forward step in the educational history of the
South during the past forty years has in view the
elevation of the disadvantaged whites, the democ-
ratizing of the spirit of the colleges, and the painful
search for the right means of training the negro
in the lessons of living under conditions of freedom.
Education felt itself charged with a high indus-
trial, social, and national mission. For example,
the growth of the system of common schools, espe-
cially in the rural districts, the creation of high
schools, and the establishment of normal institutes
have all sought the development of the masses of the
people in the interest of economic efficiency and civic
enlightenment. The transformation in the charac-
ter of the colleges is marked by the changes in
the courses of study, which have become more and
more scientific, sociological, and historical, while at
the same time the classics have continued to be fos-
tered with becoming zeal. To the same effect has
been the growth of the agricultural and mechanical
colleges under the joint patronage of the state and
national governments. For the training of the
negroes, varied agencies have been employed, such
as the public school, higher institutions maintained
chiefly by Northern philanthropy, and the two notable
centres of educational experiment at Hampton and
Tuskegee.
The development of this vast system of educa-
tional effort, more or less skilfully adapted to the
peculiar economic, political and racial conditions
of the South, constitutes the chief work of that
section since the war, notwithstanding the praise
that must be accorded the heroic recovery of the
South from the ravages of that struggle, the mar-
EDUCATION SINCE THE WAR. 217
velous growth of industries and the political ability
displayed in bringing order and progress out of a
baffling situation almost without parallel. Indeed,
it is futile to try to apportion praise among the
statesmen, industrial leaders and educators of this
region during the past generation, for the patent
reason that all have worked alike for the cause of
education. The educator, so far from boasting,
knows full well that he has reaped the reward of an
enthusiasm that has thrilled the masses of our peo
pie. In the working out of this structural purpose
of social efficiency, the statesman and the teacher,
the industrial chief and the preacher, the farmer
and the merchant, and, above all, groups of gifted
women, have had a share. It is apparent, there-
fore, that the expanding educational system of
the South to-day is to be ascribed to the unanimity
in aim and effort which our people as a whole have
displayed in the achievement of a purpose basal to
our own welfare and the integrity of the nation.
So gigantic an enterprise in education as this has
naturally enlisted the cooperation of many agencies,
both in the South and North. The prime resource
has been, of course, universal taxation in behalf of
the public schools, where the masses of the children
are trained in skill and in civic ideals. In addition,
however, to the revenues of the state and localities,
there have been many other agencies in the educa-
tional field, such as religious bodies and voluntary
boards — for example, the Peabody Fund, the Slater
Board, the Southern Education Board, the Jeanes
Fund, the General Education Board, the Russell
Sage Foundation and the Carnegie Foundation. In
calling forth, organizing and directing these mani-
fold activities to their proper ends of industrial
efficiency and universal enlightenment, the people
of the South have shown constructive ability of
218 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
' a high order. School improvement leagues have
been planted in thousands of rural communities;
state educational conventions have formulated plans
and stimulated legislatures; associations of acad-
emies and colleges have projected ideals and corre-
lated forces; the Conference for Education in the
South has for more than a decade energized every
form of educational effort by the frank discussion
of vital themes, engaged in by many of the most
eminent men in the nation; zealous has been the
advocacy of this cause by the press as a whole;
wise and generous has been the policy of legisla-
tures in the betterment of the schools; countless
have been the sacrifices of individual men and women
in every community, indeed, in every home, seeking
to strengthen the school in order that it may do its
perfect work in democratizing society.
Thus it will be seen that the educational activities
of the South during the past forty years have been
both public and private, both secular and religious,
both Southern and National. Such has been the com-
bination of energies devoted to the threefold educa-
tional advance in this region, which has all the
inspiration of hope for the future.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Andrews: Development of Modern Europe; Bruce,
P. A.: T~he Sise of the New South; Bogart: Economic History of the
United States; Cheyney: Industrial and Social History of England;
Coman, K. : Industrial History of the United States; Cunningham:
Western Civilization in Its Economic Aspects; Kohn, A.: The Cotton
Mills of South Carolina; Murphy, E. G. : The Present South; Page,
W. H.t The Rebuilding of Old Commonwealths; Schwill, F. : Political
History of Modern Europe; Seignobos: Political History of Europe
Since 1814; Wells: Eecent Economic Changes; Reports of the Con-
ference for Education in the South; The South Atlantic Quarterly;
Sewanee Eeview.
S. C. MITCHELL,.
President of the University of South Carolina.
HIGHER EDUCATION. 219
CHAPTER IV.
HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH.
HE history of higher education in America
is the story of efforts, single or combined,
of state, church, and private benefactors.
In the oldest institutions these factors were
generally united, for the cooperation of all forces
was needed. The impelling motive was the want
of leaders, especially ministers for pioneer com-
munities. There was no set method of procedure, no
prearranged form of organization. The aim was
practical, the method varied, the result the only
important concern. Hence, every institution in the
beginning formed a type for itself.
Early Beginnings.
In the South the first movement was naturally
with the Virginia settlement. Plans set on foot by
the Virginia Company of old England to found a
university at Henrico came to naught. The move-
ment that succeeded originated long afterwards at
home. Reverend James Blair, who came to the col-
ony in 1685, was sent in 1692 by the General Assem-
bly to secure a charter for a college. This was secured
from William and Mary, for whom the college was
named, in spite of the opposition of Attorney-Gen-
eral Seymour. Money was given by the king and
queen to the new enterprise; it received, also, dona-
tions of land, private gifts, and public revenues, so
that it began its work auspiciously. The first com-
mencement was held in 1700. The first building
was an imposing structure, planned by Sir Christo-
pher Wren. The board of eighteen was self-per-
220 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
petuating, but the head of the Church in Virginia
was the head of the college, and the president and
professors subscribed to the thirty-nine articles of
religion of the Church of England till the American
Revolution. After the Revolution it was largely
controlled by the Episcopalians. The success of
this institution was marked. For one hundred years
it was the chief influence for culture in all the South.
From its alumni came the great names in church and
state that are written large in our early history.
State Movements.
The War of the Revolution strengthened the
national feeling and resulted in movements in vari-
ous states for establishing institutions entirely under
state control. The University of North Carolina
was chartered in 1789 and opened in 1795, as the
result of a movement supported by the strongest
political leaders. Large private gifts were made and
under the guidance of Joseph Caldwell the new uni-
versity soon attained great power. South Caro-
lina gave a charter to the College of Charleston in
1785 and to the state college at Columbia in 1801.
The sum of $50,000 was appropriated for buildings,
and $6,000 per annum for expenses. Under Jona-
than Maxcy and Thomas Cooper it rapidly grew
in popularity and influence. The University of
Georgia, chartered in 1785, progressed more slowly.
In Louisiana the College of New Orleans was estab-
lished in 1805, two years after the transfer of the
territory to the United States. The success of this
institution, which was largely local, was transient,
but the state spent for it about $100,000. About
$250,000 was spent between 1832 and 1844 on the
College of Louisiana; also an equal amount on the
College of Jefferson between 1831 and 1846, and
HIGHER EDUCATION. 221
$66,000 on the College of Franklin between 1831 and
1843. None of these efforts produced abiding results.
The policy of subsidizing institutions of learning
proved a failure. The University of Alabama was
founded in 1831 and the University of Mississippi
in 1844. Both of these institutions were distin-
guished by having in their faculty the great Dr. F. A.
P. Barnard, afterwards president of Columbia
College, New York.
The University of Virginia has a story of its own.
It was the embodiment of the ideals and efforts of
pne man. The plans of Thomas Jefferson compassed
ihe whole field of education from the grammar
school to the university, but it is with the last that
his memory is forever linked. His first thought
was a reformation of his alma mater, William and
Mary College, but this was abandoned as imprac-
ticable. In 1794 he proposed the transfer of a large
part of the University of Geneva to Virginia, but
this idea met with no support. In 1800 he outlined
clearly in a letter to Dr. Priestley his idea of a mod-
ern university of first rank. But this idea was to be
worked out slowly and with much opposition. The
founding of Albemarle Academy was a significant
point in this history. Mr. Jefferson doubtless
secured the location of the Academy near Char-
lottesville. In 1816 the name was changed to Central
College. In 1818, through the efforts of Joseph
Carrington Cabell, who was an indispensable assist-
ant in this whole fight, the Virginia legislature
passed its first bill providing for the establishment
of a university at a site to be fixed by commission-
ers, and $15,000 per annum was appropriated for the
institution. Jefferson secured its location at Char-
lottesville over the competition of Lexington and
Staunton. In January, 1819, Central College was
222 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
legally merged into the University of Virginia. Now
began the real preparation for the opening of the
new institution, a task which absorbed Jefferson's
mind and heart till his death. This work included
several parts: (1) The physical plant, which was
to be a worthy home for a great enterprise; (the
initial expenditure proposed was about $200,000;
the amount expended up to 1826 was about double
that sum) ; (2) the securing of the most eminent
professors that could be gotten in this country or in
Europe; (3) mapping out a course of study far
in advance of prevailing systems; (4) providing
adequate financial support. The new university was
opened to students in 1825 with seven of the eight
original schools in successful operation. Dr. Adams
well says : "It would be difficult to find in our entire
educational history anything more heroic than that
brave fight for the University of Virginia." Some
special features that have given the University of
Virginia a marked influence on Southern education
are as follows: (1) The high scholarship of the
teaching body; (2) severe standards required for
degrees ; (3) the grouping of subjects into independ-
ent "schools"; (4) the elective system; (5) the
honor system of student government. For these
and other reasons the influence of the University of
Virginia on Southern institutions has been marked,
and its methods have been widely imitated, some
times even without due discrimination.
Early Religious Efforts.
The religious aim and motive has given the chief
impulse to educational effort at all stages of our
history. The influence was present at the estab-
lishment of Harvard, and Reverend James Blair
cited the education of ministers as one of the chief
HIGHER EDUCATION. 223
purposes of William and Mary College. In the
early days this aim expressed itself mainly through
the individual efforts of cultured ministers. Thus
colleges were established, not usually under definite
ecclesiastical control, but in sympathetic relation-
ship to the churches and with strong emphasis of
religious as well as intellectual training. Many of
these colleges grew out of schools and in their begin-
nings most of them were nothing more. Princeton,
then Nassau Hall, was the great teacher of these
leaders, sending them forth as missionaries of cul-
ture as well as religion into Virginia, Tennessee,
North Carolina and South Carolina. The Scotch-
Irish population afforded a fruitful field for this
development of the richest life of the Presbyterian
Church. In the absence of professional teachers,
the ministers of the gospel occupied a double field,
and the log schoolhouse or the log college was no
less a throne of power than the pulpit itself. Pages
might be filled with the names of these pioneer
leaders.
Washington and Lee University traces its begin-
ning to a private school called Augusta Academy,
established in 1749. The change of name to Liberty
Hall attests the spirit of the Revolution. In 1779
the school was established near Lexington and was
under the care of the Hanover Presbytery. In 1782
the Virginia legislature gave it a charter with a
self-perpetuating board of trustees. In 1796 it
received from George Washington one hundred
shares of stock in the James Kiver Company, where-
upon the name was changed to Washington Acad-
emy. A further change of name was made to Wash-
ington College in 1813, and to Washington and Lee
University in 1871.
When the Hanover Presbytery took over the care
224 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
of Liberty Hall it also undertook the foundation
of a similar academy in Prince Edward county,
which was opened in January, 1776. .The first name
of Prince Edward Academy was changed in 1777
to Hampden and Sidney in memory of two English
patriots. In 1783 a charter was issued to the institu-
tion as a college. The spirit of the time was indi-
cated in the proviso that no person should be elected
professor "unless the uniform tenor of his conduct
manifests to the world his sincere affection for the
liberty and independence of the United States of
America. ' ' The charter of the institution has never
been changed, but the historic connection with the
Presbyterian Church is recognized in the fact that
the synod of Virginia is allowed to nominate
members for election by the board of trustees.
Somewhat similar was the movement that resulted
in the establishment of the earliest institutions in
Kentucky and Tennessee. Transylvania University
grew out of a consolidation of Transylvania Semi-
nary and Kentucky Academy. It was chartered
by the General Assembly of Kentucky in 1798
and flourished for half a century. It was in
1865 consolidated with Kentucky University under
the control of the Christian denomination. In 1908
the old name of Transylvania University was
restored by act of the legislature.
The movement in Tennessee was the work of four
Presbyterian ministers, Samuel Doak, Thomas B.
Craighead, Hezekiah Balch and Samuel Carrick ; the
first three were trained at Princeton, Samuel Car-
rick at Augusta Seminary. Samuel Doak established
an academy near Jonesboro about 1780. This was
chartered in 1795 by the Territorial Assembly under
the name of "Washington College. In 1818 Doak
removed to Tus;\ham and with his son opened Tus-
HIGHER EDUCATION. 225
culum Academy, chartered as a college in 1842.
Greenville College was chartered in 1794 with Heze-
kiah Balch as its first president. In 1868 it was
united with Tusculum under the title Greenville and
Tusculum College.
Blount College at Knoxville was named after Gov-
ernor Blount and chartered in 1794 with Samuel
Carrick as its first president. By its charter the
college was made strictly non-denominational. The
gift of fifty thousand acres of land by Congress in
1806 occasioned the transfer of all the property of
Blount College to the newly chartered East Tennes-
see College, which name was changed to East
Tennessee University in 1840.
Davidson Academy was established by the North
Carolina legislature in 1785 and opened the next
year with Thomas Craighead as president. The
school was located about six miles east of Nashville
and the state of North Carolina gave the new acad-
emy two hundred and forty acres of land adjoining
Nashville on the south. In 1806 the academy was
changed to Cumberland College and was made the
beneficiary of fifty thousand acres of land by the
same congressional grant that gave this amount of
land to East Tennessee College. In 1809 by act of
the legislature the college was fixed as an undenomi-
national institution. A great future seemed to open
out for this institution with the coming of Philip
Lindsley as president in 1824, which position he ac-
cepted in preference to the presidency of Princeton.
In 1826 the name was changed to University of
Nashville after an unsuccessful effort to secure the
name University of Tennessee. Already before the
war the institution had greatly declined. Since the
war it has achieved new distinction as the home of
the Peabody College for Teachers.
Vol. 10—15
226 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
Later Denominational Foundations.
Most of the institutions named originated under
religious auspices but without church control. A
more distinct denominational influence caused the
establishment of a number of institutions a genera-
tion later. This was due to two causes. In the first
place the denominations had grown stronger and
their ecclesiastical organizations were able to assume
responsibility for new enterprises. In the second
place the state universities which had grown rapidly
were thought by some to be indifferent to religion.
This movement was not left to the Presbyterians
alone but was shared in by others, especially by the
Methodists and Baptists, both of which denomina-
tions had grown strong in the South. One of the
earliest of these foundations was Center College
in Kentucky, which was chartered in 1819 and placed
under direct control of the Presbyterian Synod of
Kentucky in 1824. Other Presbyterian institutions
were Davidson College, North Carolina, founded in
1837, and Erskine College, Seuth Carolina, 1839.
The Baptists established Bichmond College, Vir-
ginia, in 1832; Wake Forest College, North Caro-
lina, 1834; Mercer University, Georgia, 1837; How-
ard College, Alabama, 1841 ; Furman College, South
Carolina, 1852; Baylor University, Texas, 1845;
Southwestern Baptist University, Tennessee, 1847.
The Methodist Church began its work for higher
education with the establishment of Cokesbury Col-
lege in Maryland, now long dead. Kandolph-Macon
College in Virginia was chartered in 1832; Emory
and Henry College, Virginia, in 1838; Emory Col-
lege, Georgia, in 1837; Centenary College, Louisiana,
in 1&41; Trinity College, North Carolina, in 1859;
Wofford College, South Carolina, in 1854; Southern
University, Alabama, in 1859. Space does not allow
HIGHER EDUCATION. 227
any detailed discussion of the early history of any
of these institutions, most of which still live and
flourish.
General Character of Ante-Bellum Colleges.
Most of the institutions named had small financial
resources. There was no essential difference between
colleges and universities. The state institutions
chose the latter title and this was imitated without
regard to the character or work of institutions so
designated. At first the oldest colleges were merely
high schools. Teachers were few, sometimes only
two or three, and tuition fees the only source of
revenue. Endowments grew slowly. Some institu-
tions perished, but most of them have been endowed
with a marvelous vitality, surviving fire and sword,
pestilence and famine. Money was raised by various
devices. Lotteries were specially favored and
seemed almost reserved for educational and philan-
thropic enterprises. Some of the early institutions
of Louisiana received proceeds of licensed gambling
houses. Davidson Academy operated for a while a
ferry across the Cumberland at Nashville. Most of
the church schools started on small subscriptions.
The self-denial of their professors is one of the most
significant facts in their history.
The attendance of students was fairly good, bet-
ter in the South than in the North in proportion
to free white population. The colleges of the North
also had many Southern students, especially Prince-
ton, Harvard and Yale. Students were prepared
for college in private academies which existed in
large numbers throughout the South. The standards
of admission were neither high nor rigid, and con-
cerned only some training in the classics and in
arithmetic and algebra. The first half of the course
was given to the continuation of these subjects.
228 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
English instruction was confined to heavy treatises
in rhetoric and the elements of criticism. Much
attention was paid to public speaking. Logic and
philosophy claimed part of the last two years.
Instruction in history was meagre and incidental.
There was some slight attention paid to natural
philosophy, transformed later into chemistry and
other special branches. In church colleges Christian
evidences occupied part of the last year. The fol-
lowing particulars are worthy of mention.
William and Mary College established a chair of
modern languages and one of municipal law in 1779.
This was no doubt through the influence of Jefferson,
then one of the trustees of the college. William and
Mary College established a chair of history in 1822,
seventeen years before such a chair was established
at Harvard. South Carolina College introduced the
study of chemistry injo its course in 1811.
Dr. Cooper, president of South Carolina College,
brought out an edition of Say's Political Economy
for college use in 1819 and taught this subject in
his institution. The same subject was taught later
by Dr. Francis Lieber, who also taught history in
its political and philosophical aspects. Jefferson's
ideas as to a course of study were far in advance
of his day and many of them were from the begin-
ning embodied in the work of the University of
Virginia.
Renewal of Effort After the War of Secession.
The first effect of the war was to close the doors
of the Southern universities and colleges. Pro-
fessors and students enlisted in the army. Those
unfitted for service remained and taught a few
classes, without system or order. In course of time
most college buildings were occupied by one or both
armies. Movable property was destroyed and endow-
HIGHER EDUCATION. 229
ments in many cases lost. At the conclusion of the
war few colleges were in proper condition to open
up, but many made an effort. The first problem
was that of existence. There were no questions of
educational theory or of standard or of college and
university administration. There was the one over-
whelming problem of supporting a few professors,
buying a few needed books, a small amount of appa-
ratus and restoring halls damaged or destroyed. As
the old private academies had largely disappeared,
most colleges had to provide preparatory depart-
ments in which to accommodate the majority of their
students. In 1877 East Tennessee University
reported ninety college students and 195 prepara-
tory. The University of Mississippi in the same
year reported 174 college and 257 preparatory;
South Carolina College, eighty-nine college and nine-
ty-five preparatory. Added to this was the estab-
lishment as private or denominational ventures of
many inferior institutions, chartered as colleges or
universities, but designed to give only a meagre
high school course. The presence of these institu-
tions hinders even now the adoption of sound
educational standards in the South.
But there have been a few new educational founda-
tions in the South that deserve especial mention.
In several states the appropriation for land grant
colleges was used to build up or strengthen a gen-
eral university. This was true of Arkansas, where
the state university was opened in 1872, and of
Louisiana, where the Agricultural and Mechanical
College was established in 1873. In 1877 this was
united with an old foundation, dating from 1855,
known as the Louisiana State University and located
at Baton Eouge. The state of Tennessee accepted
the provisions of the Land Grant act in 1869 and
230 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
committed the fund thus derived to the East Ten-
nessee University at Knoxville. This institution
without assistance from the state met the require-
ments of the appropriation. In 1879, by act of the
legislature, it received the name of The University
of Tennessee, but it was not till 1905 that the state
recognized its responsibility for the university and
its obligation to provide by direct appropriation for
its support and development. The Florida Agricul-
tural College was established in accord with the act
of Congress of 1862. This institution was opened
in 1884 at Lake City. In 1905 the State University
was established on this foundation, the location
being changed to Gainesville. The University of
Texas was provided for by act of the legisla-
ture in 1858, but nothing was done to bring
the university into being at that time. In the con-
stitution of 1876 the university was recognized and
a million acres of land were set apart for its endow-
ment. Another million acres were set apart by the
legislature of 1883. The act for the organization of
the university was passed in 1881 and the university
was formally opened at Austin in 1883. The prog-
ress of the institution has been marked. It has
grown rapidly in every respect and is destined to
a great future.
Tulane University is the legal successor of the
old University of Louisiana. This institution was
recognized in the constitution of 1845 with a med-
ical department established in 1834. The academic
department was opened in 1846 and continued a
feeble and fitful existence till 1860. The Univer-
sity was reopened in 1878 and was recognized in
the constitution of 1879. Yearly appropriations of
$10,000 were made till 1884. The donation of Paul
Tulane was made in 1882 and aggregated more than
HIGHER EDUCATION. 331
$1,000,000 The trustees of the Tulane fund took
over the administration of the University of Louisi-
ana, granting a scholarship to each senatorial and
legislative district, and giving up the claim to the
annual appropriation. In return the state exempted
the university property from taxation. This con-
tract, made in 1884, was ratified at a general election
in 1888 and incorporated in the state constitution
of 1898. Large additions to the university funds
have been made for the Sophie Newcomb Memorial
College for Young Women from the estate of Mrs.
Xewcomb. The medical department also has become
the beneficiary of a legacy amounting to about
$800,000 from the estate of Mr. A. C. Hutchinson.
The University of the South, at Sewanee, Tenn.,
was chartered in 1858 as the result of educational
efforts in the Protestant Episcopal Church. Sub-
scriptions amounting to nearly $500,000 were
secured, but after the war nothing was left save a
large tract of land, nearly ten thousand acres, on
top of the Cumberland plateau. Through the efforts
of Bishop Charles Todd Quintard money was secured
for a small beginning shortly after the war. In
1871 there were 114 college students and 125 in
the grammar school. Instruction in theology was
begun in 1873, in medicine in 1892, and in law in
1893. Many handsome buildings have been erecte'd
in recent years and a high standard of work has been
maintained.
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., is in some
respects the most notable educational institution
established in the South since the war. The move-
ment began m the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, but its success was made possible only
^rongh donations of Cornelius Vanderbilt of New
5Tork. These gifts were made through Bishop
232 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
Holland N. McTyeire, to whom was entrusted all
the responsibility of establishing the new institu-
tion. The first gift was made in 1872 and the univer-
sity was opened in 1875. Altogether, nearly $2,000,-
000 have been given by the Vanderbilt family. Dona-
tions have been made from other sources, espe-
cially for the Biblical department. Citizens of Nash-
ville have made substantial gifts for grounds and
buildings. The university occupies a unique posi-
tion as a peace offering from the North to the South.
By its founder it was commissioned to strengthen
ties of friendship between all sections of the country.
Educationally, the peculiar distinction of Vanderbilt
has been the maintenance of high academic stand-
ards. In this respect the institution has been a rally-
ing point for the whole South and a steadfast sup-
port to a splendid group of training schools in
adjacent territory.
Other institutions have been established since the
war that can merely be named here. The Southwest-
ern Presbyterian University, Clarksville, Tenn. ;
Central University, with which Center College has
been united; Grant University, now the University
of Chattanooga; Southwestern University, Texas;
John B. Stetson University, Florida; Hendrix Col-
lege, Arkansas; Millsaps College, Mississippi, are
among the most important.
Inner History of Higher Education Since the War.
The most prominent factor in educational history
during the last period has been a constant and uni-
versal struggle against poverty. This poverty has
continued even to the present time and has limited
all growth and development. This is all the more
noticeable because of the great increase in the
1. College Hall, Vanderbilt University.
2. University of Tennessee, looking northward.
HIGHER EDUCATION. 233
resources of colleges and universities in other sec-
tions. In the North and East private institutions
have acquired large endowments and in the West
state institutions have received splendid grants for
buildings and current expenses. In the South higher
institutions are still struggling, working bravely
under serious limitations, cherishing ideals never
realized. The effect of this poverty has been seen
in many directions.
In the first place, the curriculum of Southern insti-
tutions has remained contracted. Meagre provision
has been made for new subjects thoroughly estab-
lished elsewhere. It is not without difficulty that
adequate instruction is offered in modern languages
or in the English language as distinguished from
literature. Chairs of history are by no means uni-
versal. Sociology, economics, education are touched
but lightly in many quarters. Instruction in special
sciences lacks adequate provision for individual
laboratory work.
Naturally, too, the material side of college instruc-
tion is poorly provided for. The total scientific
equipment of many a college could be bought for
$10,000. Institutions having $200,000 or $300,000
of endowment report scientific equipment of less
than $5,000. Libraries are small, poor in contents,
and badly administered. In the report of the Com-
missioner of Education for 1906 only four Southern
institutions are credited with libraries having 50,000
volumes. Library administration is weak ; few insti-
tutions use the library intelligently as an aid to
college work and the annual expenditure for books is
in many cases a mere pittance. Another effect of
meagre resources has been persistence of low stand-
ards of admission to college. Southern institutions,
234 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
being largely dependent on student fees, made pro-
vision to receive all comers; none were excluded.
In some cases preparatory classes were formed;
in other cases the whole college work was projected
on a plane far below a reasonable standard. The
effect of this on schools was paralyzing. There was
no place for the private academy, and public high
schools, except in cities, were almost unknown until
recent years. As colleges were largely doing the
work of high schools, it seemed easy to establish
new ones. Hence arose inferior institutions in great
numbers calling 'themselves colleges or universities,
doing the work of academies, and that very badly.
Many such institutions exist at present and hinder
constantly all educational progress. In the commis-
sioner's report for 1906 the twelve Southern states,
excluding Missouri, are credited with 115 colleges
and universities, excluding technological institutions.
A discriminating selection would reduce this
number to less than fifty.
But there are distinct signs of improvement. Since
1900 great progress has been made and there is hope
for still further advance. The states are waking
to a sense of larger responsibility and are making
more liberal appropriations for university expenses.
In the ten states of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia,
Louisiana, Mississippi,. North Carolina, South Caro-
lina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia the income of
the state universities in 1900 averaged $79,950; in
1906, $117,600. This is an increase of 47 per cent., or
a total increase for one year's income of $377,000.
New buildings, laboratories, libraries, lecture halls,
gymnasia, etc., have been and are being erected by
direct state appropriation.
Private institutions in similar manner are at work
HIGHEE EDUCATION. 235
raising funds. Special campaigns for endowment
have been projected on every side and new buildings
have gone up still more rapidly. The institution that
has not felt the quickening influence of this move-
ment is hopelessly belated. Forty-four of the best
institutions in the South report endowment in 1906
averaging $370,000 to the institution. This is an
increase of 60 per cent, over the figures reported by
those same institutions in 1900.
Another interesting achievement has been the ele-
vation of the standards of admission. This eleva-
tion has been brought about through several
influences. One of them is the Association of Col-
leges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern
States. This association was formed in 1894 under
the leadership of Vanderbilt University for the pur-
pose of elevating standards and adjusting the rela-
tions between colleges and preparatory schools. The
association fixes certain minimum requirements for
admission to college and these are binding on insti-
tutions holding membership in the association. In
1910 these requirements will be fourteen Carnegie
units, which is the recognized universal ctandard.
This affects all colleges and universities belonging
to the association. Another potent influence for
improving standards has been the appointment by
several religious denominations of educational com-
missions to bring about this end. Especially cred-
itable is the work that has been done by the Southern
Methodist Church. But the most powerful stimulus
of all has come from the Carnegie Foundation. The
frank but fair statements of fact sent out by this
body, the definition of a college made as the prime
requisite for recognition, have had a telling influ-
ence even on institutions not included in the scope of
Mr. Carnegie's benefaction.
236 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
As a result of all this the educational situation in
the South is beginning to clear up. The future will
make easier the task of true advancement. Distinc-
tions will be plainer, definitions more exact, classifi-
cations more just. Higher institutions will find their
work and position recognized and will be enabled
to go still higher. To this class will belong all state
universities and the best of the denominational or
private institutions. Feebler institutions will fall
into a second class whose work will be clearly differ-
entiated from that of the first class. Some of these
weaker institutions will limit their endeavors and
fill the position of junior colleges. In this way they
will adjust themselves to their environment and fill
an important place in a progressive system. Some
of them will die, but most of them will go their own
way, not sharing common ideals nor aiding in com-
mon tasks. With this improvement in college stand-
ards will come great changes in high school work.
Public high schools will be established even in rural
districts. These will be supplemented by private
academies even more perfectly correlated with
higher institutions than the public schools can be.
This will result in larger numbers prepared for col-
leges and in larger attendance on all higher institu-
tions. This will in turn call for more and better
equipment, bigger and better colleges.
In the meantime, the Southern University, the
home of graduate students in large numbers, the
source of intellectual life in its highest forms, the
place for all original investigations, the centre for
a group of high professional schools, the possessor
of great laboratories and richly stored libraries, the
pride of a whole section, the inspiration of a whole
nation, waits to be created in the South. Creditable
foundations have been laid, but the superstructure
remains for the future.
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES, ETC. 237
BIBLIOGRAPHY. — The most valuable material for studies in this
subject is found in the series of Histories of Education, edited by
Dr. Herbert B. Adams and published as circulars of information by
the United States Bureau of Education. An extended bibliography
of higher education in the United States has been issued in the
Columbia Library Bulletin No. 2. See also Dexter: History of Edu
cation in the United States (1904) and Thwing, Charles F. : A His-
tory of Higher Education in America (1906).
JAMES H. KIRKLAND,
Chancellor of Fanderbilt University.
CHAPTER V.
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES OF THE
SOUTH.*
Preface.
IGHER education in the South traces its
origin back beyond the American Revolution.
It has developed as the fortunes of the people
developed. The tragedy of the War of
Secession checked its growth for more than a gen-
eration. Indeed the status of higher education a
quarter of a century after the war, as was the case
with all other movements expressive of the higher
life of the people, had not reached the point from
which it receded when the war began. A new era
has now dawned, and the growth and development
of higher education in the South is destined to be
steady and rapid.
The Beginnings of Higher Education.
The oldest educational institution in the South,
and, next to Harvard, the oldest in America, is the
* The writer desires to acknowledge the valuable assistance of Prof.
John H. Latane, of the Chair of History, Washington and Lee University,
in the collection of the material of tbis article.
238 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
college of William and Mary, chartered in 1693.
The charter was procured by Commissary Blair,
the representative of the Bishop of London in Vir-
ginia, who was sent to England in 1691 for that
purpose by the colonial Assembly. The English
government gave to the college money and land. It
also appropriated to its use a tax of one penny on
every pound of tobacco exported from Virginia and
Maryland, together with all fees and profits arising
from the office of surveyor-general. Later an export
tax on furs and skins was levied for the support of
the college, and still later an import tax on all
liquors. After the Revolution one-sixth of the fees
received by all public surveyors continued to be
paid into the college treasury down to the year 1819.
The motives which led to the founding of William
and Mary are revealed in the language of the
Assembly asking for a royal endowment ' ' to the end
that the Church of Virginia may be furnished with
a seminary of ministers of the gospel, and that
the youth may be piously educated in good letters
and manners, and that the Christian faith may be
propagated amongst the western Indians, to the
glory of Almighty God." The object sought in the
establishment of Harvard College was expressed in
the charter of that institution in very similar terms.
By its charter the organization and government of
William and Mary were entrusted to a self -perpetu-
ating board of eighteen trustees resident in the
colony. The Bishop of London was the first chan-
cellor. The close dependence of the college on both
church and state is shown by the fact that down to
the Revolution the office of president was always
filled by the Bishop's commissary, or deputy, in
Virginia — the head of the college and the head of
the church thus being one and the same man.
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES, ETC. 239
William and Mary became a great school of
churchmen and statesmen. Among the statesmen
educated there were Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin
Harrison, Carter Braxton, Thomas Nelson, George
Wythe, Peyton Randolph, John Tyler, Edmund
Eandolph, Beverly Randolph, John Mercer, James
Monroe, John Blair, and John Marshall. Washing-
ton was commissioned a surveyor by William and
Mary in his youth, and later served the institution
in the honorary position of chancellor, succeeding
the bishops of London, who had held that office con-
tinuously from the founding of the college to the
Revolution.
The decline of William and Mary after the Revo-
lution was due to many causes: (1) The removal of
the capital to Richmond; (2) the cession to the
national government of Virginia's western lands,
out of which states have been carved and state uni-
versities and agricultural colleges created; and (3)
the founding of the University of Virginia.
During the War of Secession the college was
burned and its apparatus destroyed. The college
was in part rebuilt and reopened for a time after
the war, but was finally forced to close for lack of
funds. In 1887 it was revived through state aid,
with a normal department attached, and it has since
been partly reimbursed for its losses by a grant from
the Federal government. More recently it has been
taken over by the legislature of Virginia as a state
institution, and is prospering in its work.
The second oldest educational institution in the
South is Washington and Lee University, which
traces its beginnings back to the Augusta Academy,
founded in 1749, though it was not chartered as a
college until 1813, while Hampden-Sidney received
a college charter in 1783. Augusta Academy, estab-
lished first about fifteen miles southwest of the
240 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
present city of Staunton, was finally located in 1780,
with the title of Liberty Hall, in the immediate
vicinity of Lexington. Founded by the Scotch-Irish,
it was for a time under the care of the Presbytery
of Hanover, but in 1782 it procured a charter from
the legislature of Virginia as Liberty Hall Acad-
emy, with a self-perpetuating board of trustees. It
never afterwards had any organic connection with
any religious body. In recognition of the generous
donation by Washington of the shares of stock in
the James Eiver Canal Company, presented to him
by the legislature of Virginia, the name of the school
was changed by act of legislature in January, 1798,
to Washington Academy, and in 1813 to Washing-
ton College. At the close of the war Gen. Robert E.
Lee accepted the presidency of Washington College,
and it at once became one of the most celebrated
colleges of the South. General Lee's acceptance of
this position made a profound impression on the
whole country, and attracted students from every
Southern state, and a few from the North. He con-
tinued to direct the affairs of Washington College
until his death in 1870. He secured for the college
large gifts of money, and made it a strong institu-
tion, of wide influence and leadership. His remains
lie in a mausoleum in the rear of the college chapel
and over them is placed Valentine's recumbent
statue. In 1871 the name of the institution was
changed to Washington and Lee University. It is
now perhaps the most representative institution of
higher learning in the South, more than one-half of
its students being drawn from the Southern states,
outside of Virginia. It has in recent years grown
in national character, fully one-half of the Northern
states east of the Mississippi patronizing it.
Hampden-Sidney College came into existence
under the auspices of the Hanover Presbytery as
1. Main Building, Wofford College.
2. Washington and Lee University.
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES, ETC. 241
Prince Edward Academy, and was opened to stu-
dents in January, 1776. It was founded by Samuel
Stanhope Smith, a native of Lancaster county,
Penn., and a graduate of the College of New Jersey.
The name was changed in 1777 to Hampden-Sidney
Academy and in 1783 it was chartered as a college
by the legislature of Virginia. Although under
a self-perpetuating board, Harnpden-Sidney has
always continued in close touch with the Presby-
terian Church, and has recently established an
organic connection with that body.
The Scotch-Irish were very solicitous about the
education of their children and were very active in
founding schools and colleges, particularly in Ten-
nessee and Kentucky. Transylvania Seminary was
chartered by the Virginia Assembly in 1783, and
there were conferred upon it 12,000 acres of land
in addition to three confiscated estates of Tories
amounting to 8,000 acres. Among the trustees were
George Eogers Clark, Isaac Shelby and Thomas
Marshall. In 1798 the legislature of Kentucky
passed an act uniting with the Seminary the Ken-
tucky Academy, which had been chartered four years
earlier, and the name of the new institution was
changed to Transylvania University. In 1841 it
came under the control of the Methodist Church.
At the close of the war Transylvania University
was consolidated with Kentucky University, then
located at Harrodsburg, under the control of the
Christian Church. The consolidated university was
opened at Lexington Oct. 2, 1865, and continued to
be known as Kentucky University until 1908, when
by act of legislature the name was changed back to
the old historic one of Transylvania University.
The institution is under the patronage of the Chris-
tian Church.
In 1794 Blount College was chartered by the
242 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
legislature of Tennessee and located near the present
city of Knoxville. In 1807 it was merged with East
Tennessee College, which became in 1840 East
Tennessee University, and finally, in 1879, the Uni-
versity of Tennessee.
Other foundations of this period in Tennessee
were Washington College (1795), and Tusculum
College (1794). The University of Nashville traces
its origin back to the year 1785.
Three well-known colleges which were founded in
the Eighteenth century and have had a continuous
existence are the College of Charleston, founded in
1790, Washington College, Maryland, founded in
1783, and St. John's College, Maryland, founded
in 1789. These institutions were established on a
non-sectarian basis, and supported liberally for
several years by state aid. The two last mentioned
were federated as the University of Maryland for
several years, but this scheme fell through, and the
appropriations were withdrawn. Later the legis-
lature resumed the appropriations to St. John's
College and has continued them, though somewhat
irregularly, to the present time.
The universities of North Carolina and Georgia,
which trace their beginnings back to the Eighteenth
century, will be considered under the next head.
State Universities.
The state university in the South, as in the West,
is rapidly growing to power. It is assuming, as it
should, the leadership of the public school system in
each state.
The University of North Carolina has had a con-
tinuous existence on the same site and under the
same name for a longer period of time than any
other state university in the South, or in the entire
United States. The charter was granted in 1789,
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES, ETC. 243
Chapel Hill was selected as the site in 1792, the cor-
nerstone was laid in 1793, and the institution opened
in 1795. At first the faculty consisted of only one
professor and a tutor.
The University of Tennessee, as we have seen,
traces its origin back to Blount College, which was
founded in 1794. The present site was selected in
1826. In 1869 an agricultural and mechanical col-
lege was established as a department of the East
Tennessee University, and that institution was thus
made the recipient of the public lands donated by
the United States government under the Morrill act
of 1862. This made it possible to begin the build-
ing of a state university. Ten years later the present
title, University of Tennessee, was adopted.
The University of Georgia had its origin in a
charter granted by the state legislature in 1785, but
as the only foundation was "an unproductive, and,
for the most part, uninhabited tract of land," it
was several years before anything was done.
Finally, in 1801, the present site of Athens was
chosen, and during the same year Franklin College
opened. Out of this institution grew later the Uni-
versity of Georgia. Georgia's share of the funds
arising from the sale of public lands under the Mor-
rill act of 1862 was transferred to the trustees of
the University of Georgia May 1, 1872, and they at
once opened the Georgia State College of Agricul-
ture and Mechanic Arts as a coordinate department
of the institution at Athens. In October of the same
year the trustees of the university entered into a
contract with the local trustees of the North Georgia
Agricultural College, situated at Dahlonega, by
which this institution became a department of the
State University. In 1873, by arrangement with
the local trustees of the Georgia Medical College at
Augusta, founded in 1829, this institution became
244 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
the medical department of the State University. In
1867 the Lumpkin School at Athens was merged into
and became the law department of the State Uni-
versity. The state constitution of 1877 prohibited
the appropriation of state funds for higher educa-
tion to any other institution than the University
of Georgia. As a result the following institutions
have been established as branches of the State Uni-
versity: The Georgia School of Technology, at
Atlanta, established in 1885; the Georgia Normal
and Industrial College for girls, at Milledgeville,
established in 1889; the Georgia Industrial College
for colored youths, near Savannah, established in
1890; and the State Normal School, near Athens,
established in 1895.
South Carolina College, now the University of
South Carolina, was chartered in 1801 and opened to
students in 1805. It continued in successful opera-
tion down to the war, when its work was interrupted
and its buildings used as a Confederate hospital.
It was reopened in 1866 as the University of South
Carolina, but it suffered greatly during the recon-
struction period, and in 1877 was finally closed. In
1878 it was opened again as South Carolina Col-
lege, constituting for a time, with Claflin College at
Orangeburg (a school for the colored race), the
State University. Finally, in 1906, the name South
Carolina College was changed to the University of
South Carolina.
The bill establishing the University of Virginia
was passed by the legislature in 1819, largely
through the untiring efforts of Joseph Carrington
Cabell, whose aid Jefferson had enlisted years
before. Jefferson himself had been working to this
end since 1779, when he introduced his first plan for
a system of public education in the Virginia As-
sembly. The University of Virginia was the last of
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES, ETC. 246
Jefferson's mortal cares. He was its real founder.
He planned and designed the group of buildings, and
personally superintended every detail of construc-
tion. The university was opened in 1825, the year
before Jefferson's death. Jefferson's genius was
versatile and selective. He was a close and acute
observer of men and institutions as well as of
natural phenomena. His educational ideas were
derived largely from European sources, but adapted
to meet the special needs of America. Among his
first professors Jefferson selected several foreign-
ers. The chairs of ethics, law, and politics were for
practical reasons reserved for Americans. The
most significant feature of Jefferson's university
scheme was the breaking away from the old con-
ventional curriculum of American colleges and the
creation of separate schools, with the elective system
as the basis. This elective system has been adopted
in whole or in part by many other American col-
leges and universities. Another contribution made
by Jefferson, namely, student government, has also
found its way into many other institutions.
Several of the educational policies of the Uni-
versity of Virginia, such as the honor system, and
the division into separate schools, each giving a
certificate of graduation in that particular school,
left their mark on the higher institutions of the
South.
After the war the University of Virginia was
greatly hampered by the lack of a permanent execu-
tive head, and shared in the general depression that
handicapped the whole South, though it at no time
in its history yielded its position of wide influence
nnd leadership. In spite of the fact that the presi-
dential form had become almost universal at the
South, as it had at the North, the University of
Virginia clung to the older form of government
246 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
until the year 1904, when it fell into line with the
practice in vogue at other institutions. It is to-day
a rapidly growing institution, strong and vigorous.
The University of Alabama was established by
act of the General Assembly of that state Dec. 18,
1820, which act donated to it 46,000 acres of land
within the state which had recently been donated
to the state by the Congress of the United States.
In 1827 Tuscaloosa was selected for the site of the
university, and in 1831 it was first opened for stu-
dents. In 1865 the buildings were completely
destroyed by a troop of Federal cavalry. The erec-
tion of new buildings was begun in 1867 and instruc-
tion was resumed in 1869. Through the efforts of
Senator Morgan a second donation of 46,000 acres
of land within the state was made by Congress in
1884, in restitution of the losses incurred in 1865.
In 1907 the state legislature appropriated $400,000
to be used as a fund for the erection of new build-
ings. It is now a strong institution.
State universities now exist in all the Southern
states. The University of Missouri was organized
in 1841; the Louisiana State University in 1860;
the West Virginia University in 1867; the Uni-
versity of Arkansas in 1872 ; the University of Texas
in 1883; and the University of Oklahoma in 1892.
The University of Florida (after several abortive
attempts had been made to found such an institution
in that state) was finally organized in its present
form in 1905. The State College of Kentucky has
recently become the State University of Kentucky.
Two rather unique state institutions deserve to
be mentioned here, both of which have had a more
than local influence and reputation — the Virginia
Military Institute, organized in 1839, and the South
Carolina Military Academy, organized in 1843. Both
institutions are of a strictly military character, and
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES, ETC. 247
both differ from the ordinary military school in
being of collegiate rank. They are both state
schools, modeled after West Point, both in curricu-
lum and in discipline. Both rendered valiant service
to the Confederacy.
The state universities of the South may be broadly
classed in two groups : (1) Those of Virginia, North
Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and
Texas — which consist of the usual academic depart-
ment, with one or more of the professional schools
of law, medicine, and engineering added; and (2)
those of Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri,
Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia, which
have, in addition to the academic and professional
departments, the colleges of agriculture and
mechanic arts attached to them and located at the
same place as a part of the same plant. These latter
universities receive, in addition to state funds, the
appropriations made by the Federal government
under the Morrill acts. The University of Georgia
stands in a class by itself. It has agricultural,
mechanical, industrial, and other ''branches,"
organized as departments of the State University,
but located at different points. In any statistical
study of state universities it is important to note
whether agricultural and mechanical students are
included in the enumeration of students and whether
Federal appropriations for such purposes are
counted as part of the income. It should also be
noted that, in the study of incomes of all colleges of
whatever character it is necessary to inquire whether
cost of living is included in the income. Many
Southern colleges adopt this policy. It is frequently
misleading.
Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges.
On July 2, 1862, the Congress of the United
248 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
States passed an act known as the Morrill act, "An
Act donating Public Lands to the several States and
Territories which may provide Colleges for the ben-
efit of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts." Within
a few years after the close of the war the Southern
states all took steps to avail themselves of this
endowment, and established agricultural and
mechanical colleges, either in connection with and
as a part of the state universities, as already men-
tioned, or as independent institutions. These insti-
tutions so established were further endowed by the
second Morrill act of Aug. 30, 1890.
These appropriations have amounted since 1900
to $25,000 annually for each state and territory, with
an additional allowance for agricultural experiment
stations. By another act of March 4, 1907, provi-
sion was made for an increase to each state and ter-
ritory of $5,000 for the year 1908, and an additional
sum of $5,000 annually thereafter over the amount
for the preceding year until the total reaches $50,000,
which shall be the fixed amount to be appropriated
annually to each state and territory. These insti-
tutions have not been successful in turning out any
large number of farmers, though through the experi-
ment stations and the general diffusion of knowl-
edge, they have been of great assistance to the farm-
ing class. The general tendency has been to offer
general scientific training and special training in
the mechanic arts. This tendency is not so marked
in the North or in the West as in the South. Many
young men in the South are drawn to these schools
by state scholarships who later go to universities or
professional schools. As the Federal law provides
that students of the negro race shall not be denied
the benefits of these appropriations, the Southern
states and Delaware have provided separate schools
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES, ETC. 249
for members of that race, such as the Hampton
Normal and Industrial Institute in Virginia, the
Agricultural and Mechanical College for the Colored
Kace in North Carolina, the Agricultural and
Mechanical Colleges for Negroes of Alabama, etc.
Some of these institutions receive, in addition,
annual appropriations from the state ; others do not.
The Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the Alabama
Polytechnic Institute, Clemson College, the North
Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanical
Arts, the Georgia School of Technology, the A. &
M. Colleges of Mississippi and of Texas, all estab-
lished for white youth, have done a conspicuous and
notable work.
Denominational Colleges and Universities.
During the Middle Ages, and in fact until rela-
tively recent times, education was regarded exclu-
sively as a function of the Church. All of our early
schools and colleges were established under ecclesi-
astical patronage, and even at a later period many
of those that received state aid were dominated to
a greater or lesser extent by some religious body.
The first presidents of the universities of North
Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama were ministers,
and the same was the case with many other insti-
tutions. The gradual secularization and growth of
institutions receiving state aid led in time to denom-
inational activity of a new kind in the field of edu-
cation. About 1830 a number of colleges were
founded under exclusive denominational control, and
later many others were established.
The Methodists founded Randolph-Macon Col-
lege, Virginia, in 1832; Emory College, Georgia, in
1836; Emory and Henry, Virginia, in 1838; WofTord
College, South Carolina, in 1854; Central College,
250 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
Missouri, in 1857; Trinity College, North Carolina,
in 1859; Southern University, Alabama, in 1859;
Kentucky Wesleyan in 1866; Southwestern, Texas,
in 1873; Hendrix College, Arkansas, in 1884, and
other excellent colleges.
The Presbyterians had, as we have seen, estab-
lished Hampden-Sidney in 1776, Tusculum College
and Washington College, Tennessee, in 1794 and
1795. In 1882 they established Central University,
Kentucky; in 1837, Davidson College, North Caro-
lina ; in 1842, Cumberland University, Tennessee ;
in 1850, Austin College, Texas; in 1853, Westmin-
ster College, Missouri, and in 1855, the Southwestern
Presbyterian University, Tennessee. There are
other smaller institutions of merit.
The Baptists founded, among other colleges,
Georgetown College, Kentucky, in 1829 ; Mississippi
College, in 1827; Eichmond College, in 1832, the
same year with Bandolph-Macon ; Wake Forest Col-
lege, North Carolina, in 1834; Mercer University,
Georgia, in 1837; Howard College, Alabama, in
1841; Baylor University, Texas, in 1845; William
Jewell College, Missouri, in 1849; Carson and New-
man College, Tennessee, in 1851; Furman Uni-
versity,^ South Carolina, in 1852; Bethel College,
Kentucky, in 1854; Ouachita College, Arkansas, in
1886; John B. Stetson University, Florida, in 1887;
and a number of smaller colleges which are doing
good work.
The Eoman Catholics established St. Mary's Col-
lege, Kentucky, in 1821; St. Louis University, Mis-
souri, in 1829 ; Springhill College, Alabama, in 1830 ;
College of the Immaculate Conception, Louisiana, in
1847 ; Christian Brothers College, Missouri, in 1851 ;
and St. Mary's University, Texas, in 1854; and a
1. Library, University of Mississippi.
2. Lyceum Building, University of Mississippi.
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES, ETC. 251
large number of other colleges in Maryland and
elsewhere.
The Christians, or Disciples, established Bacon
College, afterward known as Kentucky University,
in 1836 ; and Christian University, Missouri, in 1853.
The Friends founded Guilford College, North Caro-
lina, in 1837. The Associate Reformed Presby-
terians founded Erskine College, South Carolina, in
1839. The Lutherans established Boanoke College,
Virginia, in 1853; and Newberry College, South
Carolina, in 1858. The German Baptists established
Bridgewater College, Virginia, in 1879. The Meth-
odist Protestants founded Western Maryland Col-
lege in 1867. These are but a few of the institutions
of this general character that here deserve mention.
After the War of Secession the Methodist Epis-
copal Church (North) founded a number of colleges
for the colored race — among others, Bust Uni-
versity, Mississippi, in 1867; Morgan College, Mary-
land, the same year ; Claflin University, South Caro-
lina, in 1869; Clark University, Georgia, in 1870;
Wiley University, Texas, and New Orleans Uni-
versity, Louisiana, in 1873; and Philander Smith
College, Arkansas, in 1877. For whites they founded,
among other schools, Central Wesleyan College,
Missouri, in 1864; University of Chattanooga, in
1867 ; Fort Worth University, Texas, in 1881 ; Union
College, Kentucky, in 1886 ; Missouri Wesleyan Col-
lege, in 1887 ; and West Virginia Wesleyan College,
in 1890.
The African Methodist Episcopal established
Allen University, South Carolina, in 1881; and Mor-
ris Brown College, Georgia, in 1885.
The Baptists have founded for the colored race,
among other similar schools, Shaw University, North
Carolina, in 1865 ; Atlanta Baptist College, in 1867 ;
252 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
Leland University, Louisiana, in 1870 ; and Virginia
Union University, in 1899.
A number of other denominational colleges have
been established since the war, but of these only two
have exercised wide leadership — namely, Vanderbilt
University and the University of the South. The
charter of the University of the South was granted
by the legislature of Tennessee, Jan. 6, 1858, and by
a strange coincidence, on the following day a charter
was granted for a Central University, to be located
in Nashville, under the auspices of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. But neither institution
was destined to be opened for years. The war upset
all plans.
The University of the South was projected at a
conference of the bishops, clerical and lay repre-
sentatives of nine Southern states held at Lookout
Mountain, Tenn., in July, 1857. Bishop Polk, of
Louisiana, was the prime mover. In outlining his
plans he said: "This we propose shall be a uni-
versity, with all the faculties, theology included,
upon a plan so extensive as to comprise the whole
course usually embraced in the most approved insti-
tutions of that grade, whether at home or abroad."
He proposed to raise an endowment of $3,000,000,
an enormous sum for those days. A tract of several
thousand acres of land on the Sewanee Mountain
was soon secured, and $500,000 subscribed. In 1860
the cornerstone of the central building was laid. At
the close of the war Bishop Quintard, who had just
been elected Bishop of Tennessee, revived the plans
of the warrior-bishop, who had sacrificed his life
in the Confederate cause, and by persistent efforts
in every part of the South, in the North, and in
England, secured sufficient funds to erect temporary
buildings and open the university in September,
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES, ETC. 253
1868. The growth of the university has been steady,
and it has become known far and wide as a center
of culture. It has one of the finest libraries in the
South.
Influenced, no doubt, by Bishop Quintard's suc-
cess, Bishop McTyeire of the Methodist Church
revived the idea of the Central University. In 1873
he persuaded Cornelius Vanderbilt (their wives
being relatives) to make a donation. He gave
$500,000 at the start, and subsequently increased
the amount to $1,000,000. The university was opened
in 1875. Its growth has been rapid. It is centrally
located, and is a leading institution. Its first chan-
cellor was Landon C. Garland. He was succeeded
in 1893 by the present chancellor, James H. Kirk-
land, who has led the fight in the South for advanced
college entrance requirements. The Association of
Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern
States was organized in response to an invitation
sent out by a committee of the faculty of Vanderbilt
University.
Non-Sectarian Colleges and Universities.
Washington and Lee, Tulane, The College of
Charleston, Washington University, George Wash-
ington University, and a few small institutions com-
plete the brief list of Southern Colleges that are
independent of either church or state, unless we
include the Central University of Kentucky, and
the Eandolph-Macon Woman's College, recently
accepted by the Carnegie Foundation.
The Johns Hopkins University draws many of its
students from Maryland and the South, and has had
a marked influence on the development of higher
education in the South. It has, of course, been the
leading university force during the past quarter of
a century. It should be mentioned in this sketch.
254 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
It is too well known to require more than mere
mention.
Tulane has performed a great service for the
southwestern section of the Southern states. It
deserves to rank among the foremost institutions of
the country. It is a true university in ideal and
spirit. It occupies a strategic position, and with
its present progressive, farseeing policy, it is assum-
ing a position of acknowledged leadership.
The Higher Education of Women.
"Wesley an Female College, of Macon, Ga.,
founded in 1836, claims to be the first institution in
the world to give academic degrees to women.
Hollins Institute, Bandolph-Macon Woman's Col-
lege, Sophie Newcomb, Agnes Scott College, Mary
Baldwin Seminary, Sweet Briar Institute, Converse
College, Baptist University (Raleigh), Presbyterian
College (Charlotte), Ward Seminary, and scores of
other colleges for women are making rapid progress.
Each one of the Southern states has established one
or more excellent normal schools for women. Some
of the states have provided free college courses in
those institutions. The Peabody College, at Nash-
ville, serves the entire South. It is about to be
strengthened in such a way as to give it even greater
power than it has hitherto possessed.
The following state institutions admit women:
Alabama Polytechnic, University of Alabama, Uni-
versity of Arkansas, University of Kentucky, Louis-
iana State University, Mississippi A. & M., Uni-
versity of Mississippi, University of Missouri, Uni-
versity of North Carolina, University of South
Carolina, University of Tennessee, University of
Texas, University of West Virginia. Many private
and denominational colleges adopt the same policy.
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES, ETC. 255
The Higher Education of Negroes.
The Hampton Normal and Industrial Institute
and the Tuskegee Institute, both of them noble
foundations, have perhaps done the most conspicu-
ous work in the higher education of the negro. There
are, however, numerous other collegiate, normal,
agricultural, mechanical and industrial institutions
in every section of the South which are doing excel-
lent service. Many of them have already received
notice in this article. Among these we should make
special mention of Atlanta University, Shaw Uni-
versity, Virginia Union University, and Fisk Uni-
versity, Howard University (Washington), and
Berea College (Kentucky), which provides instruc-
tion for both races.
Conclusion.
No attempt has been made to mention, in this
brief discussion, all the deserving colleges of the
South. Our effort has been to trace historically the
general movement in higher education, the various
forces behind it, and the forms under which it has
developed. The following list of universities and
colleges, with the date of their founding, shows the
progress and present attainment of the South in
institutions devoted to higher education. The list
is, of course, not exhaustive, but gives a fair view
of what has been done.
STATE UNIVERSITIES.
1831 — University of Alabama. 1803 — University of South Caro-
1872 — University of Arkansas. lina.
1800 — University of Georgia. 1794 — University of Tennessee.
1905 — University of the State of 1883 — University of Texas.
Florida. 1825 — University of Virginia.
1860 — Louisiana State University 1867 — West Virginia University.
and Agr. and Mech. College. 1790 — College of Charleston, S. C.
1848— University of Mississippi. (City.)
1841 — University of Missouri. 1843 — South Carolina Military
1795 — University of North Caro- Academy.
lina. 1S39— Virginia Military Institute.
1892— University of Oklahoma. 1693— College of William and Mary.
256 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
DENOMINATIONAL COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES.
METHODIST EPISCOPAL, SOUTH.
METHODIST EPISCOPAL (NORTHERN).
1859 — Southern University.
1884— Hendrix College, Ark.
1836 — Emory College, Ga.
1891 — Warthen College, Ga.
1866 — Kentucky Wesleyan College,
Ky.
1892— Millsaps College, Miss.
1857 — Central College, Mo.
1872— Morrisville College, Mo.
1859— Trinity College, N. C.
1873— Weaverville College, N. C.
1854— Wofford College, S. C.
1875 — Vanderbilt University, Tenn.
1891 — Polytechnic College, Fort
Worth, Tex.
1873 — Southwestern Univers i t y ,
Tex.
1832 — Randolph-Macon College, Va.
1838 — Emory and Henry College,
Va.
1888 — Morris Harvey College, W.
Va.
1877 — Philander Smith College,
Ark. (Col.)
1870— Clark University, Ga. (Col.)
1886 — Union College, Ky.
1873 — New Orleans University, La.
(Col.)
1867 — Morgan College, Md. (Col.)
1867 — Rust University, Miss. (Col.)
1887 — Missouri Wesleyan College,
Mo.
1864 — Central Wesleyan College,
Mo.
1869 — Claflin University, S. C.
(Col.)
1867 — University of Chattanooga,
Tenn.
1881 — Fort Worth Univer s i t y ,
Texas.
1873 — Wiley University, Texas.
(Col.)
1890 — West Virginia Wesleyan Col-
lege, W. Va.
1904 — Epworth University, Okla.
AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL.
1885 — Morris Brown College, Ga. 1881 — Allen University, S. C. (Col.)
(Col.)
METHODIST PROTESTANT.
1867 — Western Maryland College,
Md.
PRESBYTERIAN.
1872 — Arkansas College, Ark.
1822 — Central University of Ken-
tucky.
1853 — Westminster College, Mo.
1875 — Park College, Mo.
1868 — Biddle University, N. C.
(Col.)
1837 — Davidson College, N. C.
1894 — Henry Kendall College, Okla.
1880 — Presbyterian College of
South Carolina, S. C.
1855 — Southwestern Presbyterian
University, Tenn.
1794 — Greenville and Tusculum Col-
lege, Tenn.
1842 — Cumberland Univ e r s i t y ,
Tenn.
1795 — Washington College, Tenn.
1850 — Austin College, Texas.
1869 — Trinity University, Texas.
1893 — Fredericksburg College, Va.
1778 — Hampden-Sidney College, Va.
1904 — Davis and Elkins College, W.
Va.
UNITED PRESBYTERIAN.
1883— Tarkio College, Mo. 1875— R'noxville College, Tenn.
CUMBERLAND PRESBYTWUAN.
1891 — Arkansas Cumberland Col-
lege, Ark.
A. R. PRESBYTERIAN.
1839 — Erskine College, S. C.
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES, ETC. 257
BAPTIST.
1841 — Howard College, Ala.
1886 — Ouachita College, Ark.
1887 — John B. Stetson University,
Fla.
1867 — Atlanta Baptist College, Ga.
(Col.)
1837 — Mercer University, Ga.
1829— Georgetown College, Ky.
1875 — Liberty College, Ky.
1854— Bethel College, Ky.
1870 — Leland University, La. (Col.)
1827 — Mississippi College, Miss.
1849— William Jewell College, Mo.
1865 — Shaw University, N. C.
(Col.)
ROMAN
1892 — St. Bernard College, Ala.
1830 — Sprlnghill College, Ala.
1821 — St. Mary's College, Ky.
1864 — Jefferson College, La.
1847 — College of the Immaculate
Conception, La.
1852 — Loyola College, Md.
1857 — Rock Hill College, Md.
1848 — St. Charles College, Md.
1808— Mt. St. Mary's College, Md.
1834— Wake Forest College, N. C.
1880 — Indian University, Okla.
1852 — Furinan University, S. C.
1851 — Carson and Newman College,
Tenn.
1890— Howard Payne Col 1 e g e ,
Texas.
1845 — Baylor University, Texas.
1879 — Bridgewater College, Va.
(German Baptist.)
1832 — Richmond College, Va.
1899— Virginia Union University,
Va. (Col.)
CATHOLIC.
1883 — Conception College, Mo.
1851 — Christian Brothers College,
Mo.
1829— St. Louis University, Mo.
1877— St. Mary's College, N. C.
1871 — Christian Brothers College,
Tenn.
1885 — St. Edward's College, Texas.
1854 — St. Mary's University, Texas.
MISCELLANEOUS.
1836 — Kentucky University, Ky.
(Christian.)
1853— Christian University, Mo.
(Christian.)
1890— Elon College, N. C. (Chris-
tian.)
1891 — Lenoir College, N. C. (Luth-
eran.)
1837— Guilford College, N. C.
( Friends. )
1858 — Newberry College, S. C.
( Lutheran. )
1866— Fisk University, Tenn. (Con-
gregational. (Col.)
1868 — University of the South,
Tenn. (Protestant Episcopal.)
1873 — Texas Christian University,
Texas. (Christian.)
1853 — Roanoke College, Va. (Luth-
eran. )
NON-SECTARIAN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES.
1866 — Pritchett College, Mo.
1859 — Washington University, Mo.
1873— Drury College, Mo.
1785 — University of Nashville,
Tenn.
1848 — Burritt College, Tenn.
1849 — Hiwassee College, Tenn.
1749 — Washington and Lee Univer-
sity, Va.
1869 — Atlanta University, Ga.
(Col.)
1857 — Bowdon College, Ga.
1855 — Berea College, Ky.
1870 — South Kentucky College, Ky.
1834— Tulane University, La.
1789 — St. John's College, Md.
1783 — Washington College, Md.
1876 — Johns Hopkins University,
Md.
COLLEGES OF AGRICULTURE AND THE MECHANIC ARTS EN'
DOWED BY ACTS OF CONGRESS OF JULY 2,
1862, AND AUG. 30. 1890.
1872 — Alabama Polytechnic Instl- 1841 — University of Missouri,
tute.
1872 — University of Arkansas.
1884— University of the State of
Florida.
1872 — Ga. State Col. of Agricul-
ture and Mechanic Arts.
1866 — Agr. and Mech. College of
Ky.
1860 — La. State Univ. and Agr.
and Mech. College.
1859— Md. Agr. College.
1880- -Miss. Agr. and Mech. Col-
lege.
Vol. 10-17.
1889— N. C. College of Agriculture
and Mehc. Arts.
1891— Okla. Agr. and Mech. Col-
lege.
1893 — Clemson Agricultural Col-
lege, S. C.
1794 — University of Tennessee.
1876 — Agr. and Mech. College of
Texas.
1872 — Va. Agr. and Mech. Col. and
Polytechnic Institute.
1868 — West Va. University.
258 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OP THE -SOUTH.
AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGES FOR COLORED
STUDENTS.
1875 — A. and M. for Negroes, Ala. 1866 — Lincoln Institute, Mo.
1875 — Branch Normal College, Ark. 1894 — A. and M. for the Colored
1892 — State College for Colored Race, N. C.
Students, Delaware. 1S97 — Colored Agr. and Normal
1887— Florida State Normal and University, Okla.
Industrial School. 1896 — Colored Normal, Indust.,
1S90 — Georgia State Industrial Col- Agr. and Mech. College, S. C.
lege. 1879 — Prairie View State Normal
1887— Kentucky Normal and In- and Industrial College, Texas,
dust. Institute for Colored Per- 1865 — Hampton Normal and Indus-
sons, trial Institute, Va.
1880 — Southern University, La. 1891 — West Va. Colored Institute.
1887 — Princess Anne Academy, Md. 1881 — Tuskegee Institute.
1871 — Alcorn Agr. and Mech. Col-
lege, Miss.
GEORGE H. DENNY,
President of Washington and Lee University.
CHAPTER VI.
THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN
THE SOUTHERN STATES.
HE development of the higher education of
women in the Southern states naturally falls
into two periods. The first period includes
the higher education of women before the
year 1860, and the second, that which has developed
since 1860. This division not only corresponds with
the great division made in the history of the South
by the War of Secession, but it also corresponds with
a division in the history of the higher education of
women in the country in general. This is evident
when we note the fact that the collegiate work for
women, which is accepted as the standard of the
higher education of women to-day, began with the
founding of Vassar College in 1865.
Previous to 1860, the education of women in the
Southern states differed little from that in other sec-
tions of the country. The higher work that was
HIGHEE EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 259
given to women was given in seminaries which usu-
ally offered courses of work quite different from the
courses offered to men in men's colleges. They were
such courses as were judged to fit young women for
their places in society. They usually emphasized
a study of music and art, included the English
branches, and sometimes French. Some attention
was given to training in manners and in social
usages. In some of these seminaries in the South
very good work was done in the classics, but this
was the exception, rather than the rule.
Conditions of life in the South before the war were
different from those in the North, and these condi-
tions affected the development of the education of
women to some extent. Families were scattered on
the plantations, so that a good deal of the elementary
education had necessarily to be done at home under
private teachers. It followed that the young women
who went away to the seminaries were seldom well
prepared for more advanced work.
Furthermore, the general sentiment toward the
education of women was that as her place was in the
home a woman should get most of her training there.
A year or two away from home, spent in gaining a
"finishing" course, was judged sufficient for a young
woman.
The education given in the seminaries was, then,
such as would naturally develop where women were
irregularly and poorly prepared for advanced work,
where they expected to remain in school only a year
or two, and where there was little desire for the
establishment of a course of training for women
similar to that given to men in men's colleges.
Considering these facts, and considering the fact
that the modern developments in the higher educa-
tion of women came about after 1865, just when the
South was suffering from the effects of the war and
260 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
of the reconstruction period, it was not strange that
the struggle for the establishment of collegiate edu-
cation for women of the same grade as that given
to men, was not carried on in the South. Just here
is the point of difference between the development of
the higher education of women in the South and that
which took place in the North. In the North, women
were better prepared for college work, as they had
secondary work in good schools which prepared
young men for college. In the North there were no
such depressing conditions as were experienced in
the South as the result of the war, and in the North,
therefore, the needed endowment for women's col-
leges was forthcoming.
The South, then, has not taken a leading part in
the establishment of colleges for women of equal
grade with those for men. And yet, there has not
been in the South an absence of appreciation of the
value of such development in the education of women,
nor of effort on the part of educators to work
toward it, nor has there been a failure to attain really
admirable work in this direction. We may say that,
in contrast with the Northern leadership and remark-
ably rapid development of a higher education for
women similar to that previously given to men, there
has been in the South an adoption of these same
standards, and such a realization of them thus far
as conditions would permit, with great promise for
their more complete realization in the near future.
Progress Since 1860.
We shall now consider more definitely the progress
that has been made since 1860 in the higher educa-
tion of women in the light of its more general prog-
ress in the country.
Two things combine to make a college. (1) aca-
demic standards, which include entrance require-
HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 261
ments and curricula; and (2) endowment, which
makes it possible to realize what is included
under (1).
We may consider Southern colleges for women
with reference to these two points, and, in so doing,
we may compare them with the colleges that are rec-
ognized as standing at the head of women's colleges
in the country. The institutions which stand at the
head of colleges for women may be found classed in
''Division A" by the United States Commissioner
of Education. Another good group to take as a
standard would be the group of colleges which form
the membership of the College Entrance Examina-
tion Board. Or, again, the group of colleges whose
graduates are admitted to membership in the Asso-
ciation of Collegiate Alumnae. Institutions included
in the above groups require fourteen or more (Car-
negie) units for entrance, and a college curriculum
of sixty or more hours leading to the Bachelor's
degree. They all have good endowment and most
of them, especially those in the College Entrance
Examination Board and the Association of Colle-
giate Alumnas, have endowments of over half a mil-
lion dollars. A few have endowments of over a
million dollars.
I. Academic Standards.
First we shall consider them with reference to
academic standards. We shall discuss the following
groups: (a) Colleges for women whose academic
standards are high; (b) coeducational colleges of
high standard; (c) normal and industrial colleges;
(d) colleges having no fixed standards.
Colleges for Women of High Academic Standards.
(a) Colleges belonging to this group have devel-
oped in two ways. First, they have grown out of
262 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
the older institutions established as seminaries
before the war, and, second, new colleges have been
established since the war. Looking first at the older
institutions, we may note two which are in different
parts of the South.
Wesleyan College, located at Macon, Ga., was char-
tered in 1836 and was opened in January, 1839. This
college gave the degree of A.B. in 1840, and claims
to be the first college for women in the country to
give the degree. This college has a requirement of
fourteen units for entrance to the college work, and
a college course of four years.
On the northern border of the Southland, we find
another example of the development of a college of
high standing from one of the early seminaries. The
Woman's College of Frederick, Md., recognized as
a college in 1893, was the outgrowth of the Frederick
Female Seminary, an institution which began its
work as a seminary in 1843. This college has a
requirement of fourteen units for entrance to the
college course, and offers a course leading to the
degree of B.A. which requires sixty-eight hours of
work of collegiate grade.
Among the colleges for women which have been
established since 1860, we may note the following:
The Woman's College of Baltimore was founded
in 1884. Its requirements both in regard to entrance
and college work conform to the standard set by the
leading colleges.
The H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College for
Women, the woman's department of Tulane Univer-
sity, was founded in 1886 by the bequest of Mrs.
Josephine Louise Newcomb. It has standard college
entrance requirements of fifteen units, and a re-
quirement of four years of college work for the
degree of A.B. Its graduates are admitted as gradu-
ate students in Tulane University, and are given the
HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 263
A.M. on the completion of the work required of the
men students for this degree.
The Agnes Scott College, at Decatur, Ga., was
founded in 1890. It requires fourteen units for
entrance to the college course, and offers a course of
sixty hours of college work leading to the degree
of A.B.
The Randolph-Macon Woman's College, located at
Lynchburg, Va., was founded in 1893. It is a part
of the Kandolph-Macon system of colleges and pre-
paratory schools in Virginia. This system includes
besides the woman's college, a college for men and
three preparatory schools, one for girls, and two for
boys. The Woman's College requires fifteen units
for entrance and has a curriculum of sixty hours of
college work leading to the A.B. degree.
Sweet Briar College, located near Lynchburg, Va.,
was opened in the fall of 1906. It has the standard
college entrance requirements and a four-years' col-
lege course leading to the degree of A.B.
ioeducational Colleges.
(b) In addition to the women's colleges in the
South which offer standard college courses, there is
opportunity for women to obtain a college education
in coeducational institutions of the first rank. Van-
derbilt University and the universities of Missouri,
Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, Alabama, and North
Carolina admit women. The universities of Virginia
and Louisiana do not admit women. The University
of Georgia does not admit women to its A.B. course.
The University of Missouri offered its advantages
to women in 1870 ; Vanderbilt and the universities of
Tennessee and Alabama in 1893; the University of
North Carolina in 1896.
In this connection, the advantages accorded to
women by the Peabody College for Teachers, located
264 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
at Nashville, Term., and a part of the University of
Nashville, should be considered. This college was
established in 1905 as the successor of the Peabody
Normal College, an institution which was begun in
1875 as a normal school. Its purpose was expressed
in a resolution of the Board as follows : ' ' The estab-
lishment of a college for the higher education of
teachers for the Southern states is essential to the
completion of an efficient educational system for said
states, and would be the noblest memorial to George
Peabody." The college requires fourteen units for
admission to the B.A. course, and the B.A. course
consists of sixty hours of college work.
Turning next to the second group, namely, institu-
tions whose academic standards fall below those held
by the leading colleges in the country, we may note
two kinds of institutions, very numerous in the
South.
Normal and Industrial Colleges.
(c) There has been a marked tendency to estab-
lish in the Southern states institutions of higher
grade where work of a practical or industrial char-
acter shall constitute an important element in the
curriculum. Such institutions have not infrequently
been state-supported normal schools. The first such
school was established in 1884 at Columbus, Miss.
Notable among these institutions is the North Caro-
lina State Normal and Industrial College, located at
Greensboro, N. C. The purpose of this institution is
stated in its charter as follows : "The object of this
institution shall be (1) to give to young women such
education as shall fit them for teaching; (2) to give
instruction to young women in drawing, telegraphy,
typewriting, stenography, and such other industrial
arts as may be suitable to their sex and conducive to
their support and usefulness."
HIGHEK EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 265
This college was founded in 1891 and opened in
1892. Its foundation was due to the efforts of the
late Charles D. Mclver, one of the recent leaders in
the educational work in the South. Dr. Mclver has
had wide influence in the South, and his judgment
with reference to the need of higher education of
women is worthy of note here. He says: "If it be
claimed that woman is weaker than man, then so
much the more reason for giving her at least an
equal educational opportunity with him. If it be
admitted, as it must be, that she is by nature the
chief educator of children, her proper training is
the strategic point in the universal education of any
race. If equality in culture be desirable, and if con-
geniality between husbands and wives after middle
life be important, then a woman should have more
educational opportunities in youth than a man; for
a man's business relations bring him in contact with
every element of society, and if he have fair native
ability, he will continue to grow intellectually during
the active period of his life, whereas the confine-
ments of home and the 'duties of motherhood allow
little opportunity to a woman of any culture
except that which comes from association with little
children. ' '
The curricula of these colleges are not equal to
the courses offered by the standard colleges for
women in the North, but correspond with normal
school courses. They give two years or more of high
school work with additional work in subjects usually
included in the freshman and sophomore years of
standard college work. This comparison would not
be appropriate, as normal school cqurses are recog-
nized as below college courses, except that these nor-
mal colleges give the A.B. degree.
We may note here the fact that normal schools
for girls have been very generally established and
266 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
supported by the Southern states. They are large
and meet a great need in the South.
Colleges Having no Fixed Standards.
(d) The second group of colleges which fall below
the accepted standard of academic work constitutes,
probably, the most numerous and the most conspicu-
ous class of colleges for women in the South. It
includes institutions which are called seminaries,
institutes, colleges, and even universities. These
institutions give various degrees, most frequently
the A.B. degree, for the completion of work which
covers very little, if any, of the work given in the
leading colleges, and which has presupposed next to
nothing in the way of preparatory work. The A.B.
graduates from such institutions would frequently be
conditioned in entrance work if they were admitted,
on their degrees, to the leading colleges. Such grad-
uates would possibly be able in some instances to
obtain freshman or sophomore credit in some sub-
jects in the standard college, course.
It is impossible to consider these colleges in rela-
tion to any one standard of academic work, as they
manifest every possible variety of course. Each one
has a standard unto itself. Many of them have pri-
mary departments. Most of them emphasize work in
music, art and elocution.
It is from a consideration of the defects of this
group of colleges that there have sprung a number
of criticisms, written and spoken, always protesting
against the condition of education of women in the
South. Such criticisms are forceful inasmuch as
most of the young women in the South are in these
institutions. At the same time it must not be for-
gotten that in the institutions mentioned first may be
found splendid opportunities for doing work of a
collegiate grade.
HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 267
The conditions in the colleges grouped under (d)
have corne about gradually, and must be changed
gradually. No college could stand alone and insti-
tute a radically different order of things, particu-
larly without a far larger endowment than any one
of them possesses at present. The situation is clearly
recognized by the leaders in the educational work
of the South to-day, and there is a definite and
strong movement which shows conservative progress
toward a differentiation of college and preparatory
work as well as an improvement of the standards of
both.
This is not the place to discuss the educational
movement in the South which has been going on dur-
ing the last few years, particularly since that move-
ment has touched the matter of the education of
women less than other educational interests of the
South. Yet its effects have been felt in woman's col-
lege education. They are noticeable, first, in the
improved college preparation that comes with the
improved high school curricula. Graduates from
the best high schools in the South can now enter col-
lege with fairly good preparation. They are notice-
able, again, in the impetus toward higher standards
given by the Southern Association of Colleges and
Preparatory Schools. This association admits col-
leges and schools for women as well as those for
men, and its gradual raising of standards has stimu-
lated the Southern institutions to do their best in
this regard, and has worked toward a much needed
coordination of standards. This association has
recently decided upon a requirement of fourteen
units for entrance to college work, with a minimum
of ten units for conditioned students. The following
Southern colleges for women and coeducational col-
leges are members of this association: Bandolph-
Macon Woman's College, Sophie Newcomb Memorial
268 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
College, University of Alabama, Baltimore Woman's
College, University of Texas, Vanderbilt University,
University of North Carolina, University of Missis-
sippi, University of Tennessee.
Further in this connection, increased interest in
improving and coordinating the standards of South-
ern colleges for women is shown in the formation in
several states, notably North Carolina and Virginia,
of state associations of colleges and schools for
young women. The Southern Association of College
Women, and the Southern branches of the Associa-
tion of Collegiate Alumnae are also active in working
toward the highest standard of college work for
women in the Southern institutions.
II. Endowment.
We come now to a consideration of the second
element in a college, the matter of endowment.
We may omit from our consideration the endowment
of the coeducational institutions of high standing,
group (b), which are largely state supported, and
consider only the institutions for women. Of these,
those which rank highest, including only a few of
group (a), are well endowed. The H. Sophie New-
comb Memorial College and the Woman's College of
Baltimore have endowments of over half a million
dollars. Most of the colleges which are grouped
under (a) have little endowment.
When we look at the group of colleges for women
which we have referred to as falling below the aca-
demic standard, group (d), we find that the condi-
tions set forth above will be largely explained when
we say that scarcely one of them has anything in the
way of endowment.
In addition to this, the amount charged students
for board and tuition in these Southern institutions
is rarely more than three hundred dollars for the
HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 369
academic year, and frequently less. In the North
this charge is never under four hundred dollars, and
usually five hundred or more.
The effects of this financial condition are too clear
to need more than a passing word. They are : inade-
quate equipment, poorly paid teachers, cheap living
in every way. Chief among the effects is the depend-
ence upon patronage, which leads to great difficulty
in maintaining academic standards.
Many of the colleges of group (d) are not lacking
in able leadership or in excellent teachers. Many
of the heads of these institutions are eager to make
them either colleges of first rank or good prepara-
tory schools, but owing to the lack of financial
resources they cannot be independent of the condi-
tions which prevent their growth.
The state normal schools and the normal and
industrial schools, group (c), are the best supported
institutions for women in the South. For this reason,
it is sometimes said that in them lies the promise for
the future with regard to the higher education of
women. And yet, when we consider the fact that
their curricula are not equal to the standard college
curricula, and that they are founded with a view to
meeting the needs of young women who have only a
limited time to spend in preparation for work which
they must do to earn a living, it is a question whether
they will fill the need for a collegiate training for
women.
In the light of these facts it is evident that the
chief need of Southern education for women to-day
is the development of more colleges for women which
shall be able to put into effect the highest academic
standards. The work done in such colleges as are
referred to in (a) should be increased and that done
in (d) should be diminished. To that end more col-
leges should be well endowed. Such endowment
270 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
would enable Southern colleges of the type of (a)
in the course of a few years to draw the main body
of Southern students and take their places with the
leading colleges for women in the country.
Previous to 1860, the education of women in the
South was carried on, as it was in the North, in semi-
naries or academies where the work was irregular
and consisted of some academic work, with special
emphasis upon music, art and other accomplish-
ments. After 1865, when the leading colleges for
women were springing up in the North, the effects
of the war, together with a somewhat different atti-
tude toward a college education for women, kept the
South from building up rapidly colleges similar to
those in the North. A gradual growth has come
about, however. From the older seminaries have
grown up colleges of good grade. Other colleges
have been established since the war and have reached
places of high standing, as is shown by the fact that
they are enforcing high academic standards. The
leading universities of the South, with three excep-
tions, have, since the war, opened their doors to
women, and women have equal rights with men in the
recently established Peabody College for Teachers.
There are in the South two groups of institutions
which give the bachelor 's degree, but which have not
the accepted standards of academic work. These are
first the normal and industrial institutions, largely
state supported. The second group consists of inde-
pendent colleges for women whose curricula are very
diverse, sometimes covering primary and always
including a large amount of secondary work, and
whose entrance requirements are low.
The endowment throughout the institutions for
women, as a whole, not referring to a few specific
colleges, or to the state-supported normal and indus-
trial schools, is entirely inadequate,, and this lack of
SECONDARY EDUCATION. 271
endowment must result in a failure to maintain high
academic standards and high rank in the college
world.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Conway, Clara: The Needs of Southern Women
(National Education Association, Journal of Proceedings and Ad-
dresses, 1884, Pt. II., p. 174f ) ; Crawford, Mary Caroline: Newcomb,
and Other Colleges of the South (The College Girl of America, Bos-
ton, 1905, p. 225f ) ; Howe, Elizabeth M.: The Southern Girl, a Neg-
lected Asset (The Educational Review, 33: 287 f, March, 1907); John-
son, Lilian W.: The Higher Education of Women in the Southern
States (Proceedings Eleventh Conference for Education in the South,
1907, p. 130f ) ; Lloyd, Alice: Education for Southern Women (Pro-
ceedings Tenth Conference for Education in the South, 1907, p.
2201'); Mayo, Eev. A. D.: Southern Women in the Eecent Educa-
tional Movement in the South (Circular of Information No. 1, 1892,
published by the United States Bureau of Education, Washington,
D. C.); Smith, Charles Forster: The Higher Education of Women in
the South (Educational Review, 8:287f, October, 1894; Reply, 9:187-8,
February, 1895); Woodward, Mary V.: Woman's Education in the
South (Educational Review, 7:466f, May, 1894).
MARY K. BENEDICT,
President of Sweet Briar College.
CHAPTER VII.
SECONDAEY EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH.
N education, as in other affairs, there is
often much unprofitable discussion about
priority in conceiving ideas and founding
institutions. It often happens that two
peoples are independently engaged in the same task
at the same time, each ignorant of the other's plans,
and each surprised to find themselves at the same
goal of success at practically the same time. On the
other hand, two sets of persons may undertake the
same task, in the same way or in different ways;
one meeting no hindrances succeeds, the other meet-
ing unforeseen difficulties fails. The same sagacity,
272 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
the same wisdom, and the same zeal may not always
be crowned with the same degree of success. Edu-
cation is so inseparably bound up with the other
lines of the institutional life of a people, that know-
ing the trend of these other lines, one can reasonably
foresee the attitude a given people will manifest
toward education, after the proper allowances have
been made for environment.
Grammar Schools.
Knowing, as we do, the traditions and the training
and the standards in religion, politics, society and
industry with which the main streams of colonists in
America were imbued, we could reasonably forecast
the earnestness with which they set about to educate
their children. Notwithstanding the mingled feel-
ings of reverence and repugnance for the various
forms of institutional life in the mother country,
it is not at all surprising to find the schools of
Europe the prototypes of those set up in America.
In the South, as in New England and elsewhere, the
grammar school early found a place. Naturally Vir-
ginia would be the first to give attention to schools,
and her lead was quickly followed by the Carolinas,
and by Georgia later.
The origin and support of these schools afford an
excellent insight into the sentiments and ideals of
those who founded them. They were founded and
supported sometimes by church, sometimes by school
societies, and frequently by individuals. It was
often necessary for a large planter to employ a tutor
for his own children. Measured by the standards
of that day, many of these schools were adequately
supported, while others were given small substance.
They were especially designed to prepare students
for college or the university, therefore intended to
SECONDARY EDUCATION. 273
serve the well-born and well-to-do, "the directive
and professional classes." While boys from the
lower classes were not denied entrance to them, they
were neither founded nor maintained for such boys.
But few girls attended the grammar schools, except
those taught by private tutors.
The grammar schools were not in any way articu-
lated with the elementary schools of the time. The
course of study was narrow as compared with sec-
ondary courses of recent times. Latin took prece-
dence over all other branches, Greek came next in
importance, and a little mathematics rounded out
the course. Excepting the thoroughness with which
spelling and penmanship were taught, even the
mother tongue found no very respectable place in
the course. Such a course of study met the demands
for college and university entrance, and no othe*
courses were deemed desirable. It is true that, in
Virginia at least, industrial education was advocated
.•and decreed as early as 1646, but industrial training
found no general support. In the majority of these
schools there was but one teacher, or master, though
in some there was an assistant to teach the less
advanced pupils. As is true to-day, many of the
teachers were well equipped to teach the narrow
course of study, while others must have been sadly
deficient, even for that day. Throughout the colonies
many of the teachers were t i redemptioners, " and
some were even convicts, not all of them for crimes
against morals, to be sure, but for debt and the like.
Many of these teachers, however, were men of the
best education and the widest culture, ministers of
the gospel many of them. The quality of their
Reaching can be judged by the fact that their pupils
ttook high stand in the leading colleges and universi^
of Europe.
y»i. ID—IS
274 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
The close of the Eevolutionary War found a
changed order and changed conditions in America.
The whole institutional life of a people had
been transformed. Broadened religious sentiments,
crystallized political principles, a cemented social
organism, and an awakening industrial era gave
birth to new educational ideas and efforts. The new
state constitutions repeated old declarations and
provisions, and contained many new ones, looking
toward the establishment of state systems of edu-
cation, supported wholly or in part by general taxa-
tion. But it must be remembered that public educa-
tion, as we think of it to-day, was scarcely dreamed
of, save by a very few far-sighted and patient men.
Free schools, as they were called, were founded and
supported for the benefit of those unable to pay
tuition, and were popularly called pauper schools.
They were the elementary schools. In the secondary
field the academy took the place of the grammar
school of colonial times.
The Academies.
Although many academies were established and
fostered by ecclesiastical bodies, and a few received
public funds, the most of the academies were private
schools. Their establishment was not a matter of
philanthropy, and they drew their patronage chiefly
from those able to pay the tuition of their boys, yet
they were attended by many poor boys. In fact,
students were not excluded on account of inability
to pay. The main object of the academies, like the
old grammar schools, was to prepare boys for col-
lege. The time-honored classical course was the
popular one, but as the spirit of democracy had
grown since the colonial days, so the academy was
a more democratic school than the grammar school.
SECONDARY EDUCATION. 275
The course of study was broader and more liberal.
Latin and Greek were retained, even strengthened;
mathematics was made to include surveying and
navigation; natural philosophy, ancient history,
and a few other subjects found recognition. Latin
and Greek remained the staple subjects in these
schools, as already said, and some of the tasks
assigned and mastered in these two subjects would
strike terror to most of our high school pupils of
to-day. However, it must be remembered that these
pupils did but little else. The work done in these
academies was for the most part of a thorough kind ;
witness so many young men going from them to
enter even the junior classes at Yale and Princeton.
Of course we must not forget that the standard of
these institutions has been advanced since that day.
The masters of the academies were better fitted
to teach than were the masters of the grammar
schools. They were usually men of strong person-
ality and individuality — at least those who remained
long in teaching. But if we are to believe tradition
or history, we must conclude that many of them
were rough men as well as strong men. The disci-
pline maintained in many of these academies was
stern, exacting and unreasonable, not to say cruel or
brutal. Flogging seems to have been a good part of
the daily routine of many of them. Such discipline
was popular in that day, and even now the hardships
and floggings of those schools are frequently pointed
to as the means by which many of the foremost men
of that time were made. Perhaps hardship and
even cruel discipline toughens the fiber of a " heaven-
sent genius, ' ' but what of the scores of boys of fewer
divine gifts who were cowed into mediocrity?
The severe discipline so frequently administered
in these academies is the more remarkable when we
276 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OP THE SOUTH.
remember that girls attended them. It is reasonable
to suppose that their presence in some small way
softened the harshness of that discipline. The pres-
ence of girls had certainly an effect upon the course
of study. Their presence tended to broaden the
course, and led to the establishment of girls' schools
under the rather pretentious name "seminaries,"
and later to the founding of women's colleges. In
fact, the South may justly lay claim to leadership
in the establishment of institutions of higher learn-
ing for girls.
In 1850 there were in the eleven states usually
called the South at least 2,000 academies, with more
than 3,200 teachers and more than 70,000 pupils.
The fact must not be overlooked that many pupils
entered these academies at a very early age — far
younger than would now, under the most liberal
interpretation, be called pupils of the secondary
grade. Many boys of nine years of age entered
these schools, and occasionally younger. Many of
these academies have had so long or so conspicuous
a career as to warrant special mention. For
instance, Concord Academy and Hanover Academy
in Virginia, David Caldwell's school and Bingham's
school in North Carolina, Mt. Zion and Dr. Waddel 's
School in South Carolina, the Academy of Richmond
County and Sunbury Academy in Georgia, Greene
Springs School in Alabama, Elizabeth Academy in
Mississippi, and several other such in Louisiana,
Florida and Texas.
The close of the War between the States left the
educational machinery of the South paralyzed. Most
of the academies had been swept out of existence,
and most of the boys had neither the time nor the
money to attend such schools ManjT of the colleges
had closed their doors during the war, and wlie&
SECONDARY EDUCATION. 277
re-opened they found themselves without students
properly prepared, hence for years they had to do
preparatory work in their regular classes, or main-
tain sub-collegiate classes to prepare students for
the regular classes.
State Support of High Schools.
Prior to 1860 a considerable number of secondary
schools had been established in the larger cities, as
New Orleans and Charleston, and supported by tax-
ation, but, generally speaking, the close of the war
found the South without anything resembling a sys-
tem of secondary schools. Some of the state con-
stitutions had made no provision for the support of
secondary schools by taxation, and legislatures were
slow to provide such schools, even where they could
do so. In the South, as in other parts of the Union
at different times, occurred heated discussions over
the right of the state to impose taxes for the support
of any education above the elementary schools,
although the states had provided for higher educa-
tion for the few. Neither the old grammar school
nor the academy had been supported by taxation,
save in a few instances ; why should secondary edu-
cation now be a matter for the state? In the mean-
time the schools must be had; what was to be done?
A second time war had changed conditions, espe-
cially social and industrial conditions, among the
white people in the South. The necessity for popu-
lar education beyond the three B's, that sacred
boundary for the common herd, was felt as never
before. The need was imperative, anbl the people
determined to act. Between 1875 and 1900 a mar-
velous impulse was given to elementary school / /
growth. It was perhaps the South 's greatest edu-
cational awakening, her educational renaissance.
278 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
Almost every city and town throughout the South
organized its elementary schools into so-called
graded schools. Hundreds of places voted local
school taxes ranging from one mill to six mills upon
every dollar of taxable property in such school dis-
tricts, institutes for teachers were held throughout
the country, normal schools for teachers were rap-
idly built, and more teachers and better teachers
were put into the schools. In organization, articu-
lation and equipment, it is safe to assert that the
elementary schools easily stand first in the educa-
tional system in the South. Upon this system of
common schools was erected a new secondary system,
universally called the high school. Thus the academy
has given way to the high school, whose prototype
again is found in the Old World.
Owing to the frequent lack of means necessary to
maintain a four-year high school course, the absence
of a demand for so long a course, and a lingering
disposition to have the colleges do secondary work,
many of the public high schools for a long time have
offered less than a four-year course. But active
agencies are already at work which will in a few
years remedy this defect. This peculiar develop-
ment of the public high school leaves no gap or
chasm between it and the elementary school, but
one of the South 's incomplete tasks is to close the
chasm between the high school and the college. At
present (1909) the state universities in all the South-
ern states have taken active steps toward organizing
and developing the high schools, thus perfecting the
"educational ladder" from the primary school to
the university. In each of more than one-half the
state universities there has been established recently
a chair of secondary education. In nearly one-half
these states the legislatures are making direct
SECONDARY EDUCATION. 279
annual appropriations to aid in the establishment
and maintenance of public high schools — a signal
victory over the opposition of a few years ago, and
a marked advance in popular education. The pri-
vate and denominational colleges are in strictest
accord with the state in perfecting the public high
school.
Conclusion.
It must not be supposed that the private high
school, or the private academy as some yet insist on
calling it, remained out of existence. Some of the
very best secondary schools of the South are among
the private ones. They will continue to exist; there
is a specific work for them, and they and the public
schools react upon each other to the good of both.
Statistics show not far from 300 private high schools
with 20,000 pupils, in the South. But many of these
schools are short-lived — to-day they are, and to-mor-
row they are not; besides, many of the pupils
enrolled in them are of elementary grade and should
not be counted. Some of these private high schools
are maintained exclusively as college preparatory
schools. There is yet another class — schools of sec-
ondary grade called by more dignified names, such
as collegiate institute and even college.
The public high school is a more democratic school
than was the ante-bellum academy. In the high
school course of study Latin still holds an honored
place, though not so commanding a place as in the
old academies. There may be good and sufficient
reasons for the change. Greek has lost much of its
prestige. Mathematics takes even a wider range,
especially in the better equipped high schools. The
mother tongue, its grammar and literature, is made
prominent as never in the academies, while history
and some of the natural sciences are found in every
280 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
program. Modern languages do not as yet occupy
a large place.
Comparatively few of the public high schools are
taught by one teacher, as was often the case in the
old academies. The number of pupils and the vari-
ety of subjects taught in them require more teachers.
In most of them the work of teaching is divided by
subjects, instead of by classes. With the almost
numberless professions and vocations inviting to
them young men of force and capacity, relatively
fewer men make teaching their life work .than in
ante-bellum days. In consequence nearly one-half
of the high school teachers are women. In many
quarters this is regarded as unfortunate so far as
it concerns the boys in the high school, not that the
woman teacher is the inferior of the man, but
because the boy loses the companionship and influ-
ence of a strong man as his teacher at a critical
period in his life. Nearly all the public high schools
are coeducational.
Since the high school has come into existence in
response to the demands of the people, and since
only a small proportion of pupils go beyond the high
school in their education, it has been called the
people's college. Only in limited circles is the high
school any longer looked upon as simply a prepara-
tory school for college. The masses here receive
their school training for intelligent citizenship,
industrial efficiency and social enjoyment. For eco-
nomic and social reasons the demands made upon
the high school have been increasing rapidly within
the past twenty-five years. Already Jn the larger
cities are at least three well-defined typec o/ high
school — the one commonly called literary, the
ual training school, and the commercial school,
taking its name from the dominant feature in it.
SECONDARY EDUCATION. . 281
high school called literary includes several courses
of study, such as classical, English and Latin-scien-
tific. In several Southern states distinctly agricul-
tural high schools have been established, and the
present outlook is that many more will be established
within the next five years. Industrial progress
demands increased mechanical skill, increased civic
responsibilities call for a broader intelligence, and
vocational training seems inevitable. The entire
South is earnestly absorbed in these problems. What
shall the secondary school of the next generation be ?
Shall it keep separate and distinct the various types
now in existence and yet to be installed? Or shall
it be a school with a wide variety of courses of study,
each with a dominating characteristic but liberal in
its scope, and all of equal value as instruments of
education'?
BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Booue, Richard G. : Education in the United States
(pp. 402, New York, 1893); Brown, Elmer Ellsworth: The Making
of Our Middle Schools (pp. 547, New York, 1905) and Secondary
Education (in Butler, Education in the United States, monograph 4,
Vol. I, pp. 143-205) ; Dexter, Edwin Grant: A History of Education
in the United States (pp. 656, New York, 1904) ; Monographs on
the History of Education in the different Southern states, issued as
Circulars of Information by the Bureau of Education, Washing-
ton, D. C
WILLIAM H. HAND,
Professor of Secondary Education, University of
South Carolina, Columbia, S. C.
282 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
CHAPTER VIII.
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH.
>
T might be stated as one of the axioms of
history that human nature for all peoples
and all historic ages is a fairly constant
quantity. It is only through this assumption
that we can enter into the consciousness of any
nation or section and understand its life and the
hidden motives which govern its activities and con-
dition its development.
Even assuming that the Anglo-Saxon people have
certain fundamental traits which separate them
from the rest of mankind, it would hardly be pos-
sible to divide American traits into Northern human
nature and Southern human nature. The elementary
school in the South possesses much in common with
the elementary school of the world and still more
in common with the American elementary school.
There are no Southern principles of teaching or
methods of school management The few charac-
teristic elements in the development and present
status of the Southern elementary school have been
the results of our history, our natural environments
and our social institutions.
The Problem of Elementary Education.
The problem of elementary education is every-
where the same. In his evolution man has developed
physical, mental, and moral powers which distin-
guish him and place him on a plane high above the
rest of the animal creation. But there is between
man and the inferior animals another difference
which is just as significant. When the animal dies,
ELEMENTAKY EDUCATION. 283
lie transmits to his descendants merely the physical
nature in form, structure, and instincts, which has
been developed by his race and species in the
struggle for existence. In addition to this each child
born into the world is a potential heir to the social
heritage of the race as it exists in material wealth,
science, art, literature and human institutions. The
keys to the outer chamber of this heritage are the
subjects taught in the primary school. The universal
problem of the elementary school is to place these
keys in the child's possession and also to develop
in him the morality and efficiency which will enable
him to live in mutual peace, good-will and helpful-
ness with his fellowman and coheir.
The American solution to this problem is our
common school system — our most significant con-
tribution to world democracy. Its basis is the fun-
damental principle of democracy — all the people
working together can bring greater good to each
individual than any man can secure working for
himself alone. The American people have decided
that the state at the expense of all its citizens shall
give to every child, high or low, rich or poor, an
equal opportunity to master the keys which unlock
to him the treasures of the social heritage
bequeathed to his generation through the united
struggles and labors of a common ancestry.
It is not necessary to say that this principle, now
so well grounded in our law and practice, has been
the result of no sudden inspiration. It has been the
growth of three hundred years. Thomas Jefferson,
the prophet of democracy, caught a clear vision of
this land of promise which his people have struggled
u century to attain. Even when prematurely crys-
tallized into law by the strong personality of some
farsighted statesman, it has failed in the execution
284 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
because the true spirit of democracy has not been
sufficiently developed. In 1811 the South Carolina
legislature passed an act establishing schools in
which elementary instruction was to be imparted
to all pupils free of charge, but the spirit was absent
and the law became almost a dead letter. Even as
late as 1855 there was violent opposition to the
establishment of the common school system of
Charleston ander this law for the reason that "the
free schools are for the poor."
The inarch toward the conception of democracy in
education has moved with unequal steps in various
sections of the United States. This rate of progress
has been determined partly by the character of the
original settlers and partly by conditions in the col-
onies and states themselves. From the beginning of
American colonization there was a greater solidarity
in the Massachusetts colony. The nucleus of this
colony not only had a strong religious bond of union
but also before coming to America had spent a time
as a band of exiles in a foreign land. They were
all poor alike. Their constant struggles with the
hostile Indians kept them closely united. What was
more natural than that they should carry into their
school system the habit of cooperation which their
very existence had made necessary?
The germ of the American common school, as it
now exists, first developed in New England under
the stress of the new conditions which confronted
the struggling communities of Massachusetts ; in the
South its growth was delayed because their more
favorable physical environment enabled these col-
onists to conform more nearly to the ideals and
practice of the mother country from which they
came. For we must bear in mind that England did
not then have and even yet has not anything like
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 285
the American common school system of to-day. The
Southern colonists included hundreds of represent-
atives from the English gentry class. John Locke
even provided for titles of nobility in his constitu-
tion for the Carolina colony. When the colonies
became established, the rich planters lived in peace
and comfort in their mansions built on the banks of
the rivers which in the South were the highways of
that day. Unlike the Massachusetts people they
were remote from their neighbors and their life and
social institutions tended to aristocracy and indi-
vidualism and away from a communistic democracy.
Their ideals were the ideals of England. Their sons
frequently went back to the English schools and
universities to complete their education. They had
been accustomed to private tutors in the home, and
to schools supported by the Church, by societies and
guilds, and by legacies and private generosity.
Nothing was more natural than that the early South-
ern colonies should adopt this system of education.
Southern Interest in Education.
The fact that the schools of the South were not
organized and supported like those of New England
has led even as eminent a historian as McMaster
to say, "In the Southern states education was almost
wholly neglected. ' ' Such a piece of provincialism is
utterly inexcusable in a historian. There was a deep
and widespread interest in education throughout the
South, but the schools were largely supported by
the religious denominations, by charitable societies
or by private tuition. Provision of a kind was made
for the children of the poor by public appropriation
and private charity.
In this day of state support we do not realize the
magnitude of the work done by the early charitable
286 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
and social societies. The South Carolina Society,
founded in 1737 for the free education of the indi-
gent of both sexes, had funds to the amount of
$137,000 in 1800. The walls of its hall in Charleston
to-day are covered with tablets recording the names
and gifts of donors to this cause. The Fellowship
Society founded in 1752 gave $3,000 to the estab-
lishment of the Normal School in Charleston in 1858.
The Winyah Indigo Society of Georgetown, S. C.,
founded a school which for over a hundred years
was the chief school for the country between
Charleston and the North Carolina line. The story
of its founding illustrates the early feeling for edu-
cation in the Southern colonies:
"The Planters of the Georgetown district about the year 1740
formed a Convivial Club, which met at the town of Georgetown on
the first Friday of each month, to talk over the latest news from
London, which was never less than a month old ; to hold high dis-
course over the growth and prosperity of the indigo plant and to
refresh the inner man and so keep up to a proper standard the
endearing ties of social life by imbibing freely of the inevitable bowl
of punch. From the initiation fees and annual contributions it came
to pass that about the year 1753 the exchequer became plethoric of
gold and the hearts of our founders overflowed with the milk of
human kindness. * * * And hence it became the question of the
hour, to what good purpose shall we devote our surplus funds? As
the tale runs, the discussion was brief, pertinent and solid. At its
conclusion the presiding officer called on the members to fill their
glasses, he wished to close the debate by a definite proposition, if it
met with their approval each member would signify it by emptying
his glass. He said: * 'Knowledge is indeed as necessary as
light and ought to be as common as water and as free as air. It has
been wisely ordained that light should have no color, water no taste,
and air no odor, so indeed knowledge should be equally pure and.
without admixture of creed or cant. I move, therefore, that the sur-
plus funds in our treasury be devoted to the establishment of an
independent charity school for the poor.' The meeting rose to its
feet, the glasses were turned down without soiling the linen, and the
Winyah Indigo Society School was established. ' '*
Though established for the poor this school was
attended by rich and poor alike. The influence of
sudi associations has been a potent factor in the
*Rulws of Winyah Indigo Society, quoted by C. Merlwether.
ELEMENTAEY EDUCATION. 287
preparation of the people for the common school
system supported by the state.
There is no denying the fact that before 1860 the
free schools of the South were not held in high
esteem. Any institution by law or custom designed
for the poor only will be despised even by the poor.
To enter a free school was to make an open confes-
sion of pauperism. It was in many places ranked
only a few degrees above the almshouse, with the
result that the self-respecting poor shunned it and
often preferred to remain in ignorance. Those who
advocated these schools and supervised them were
governed by altruistic motives, but the idea simply
did not fit into the scheme of a democracy. In
America there may be adults who have fallen by the
wayside in the race for success, to whom the state
or society with a hand of pity gives an alms. The
children are just beginning the race ; in a democracy
there are no pauper children. Education is for them
not a legislative favor but a universal birthright.
The best education which a whole state can give is
none too good for her poorest child.
The old academies of the South were many of
them excellent schools and in some respects have
not yet been surpassed. The "old field" school was
often good ; but the whole arrangement was without
adequate supervision, was expensive and uncertain,
and did not reach many of our people. The per-
centage of illiteracy was high and was not
decreasing.
In the later forties the spirit of the great common
school revival which had been led by Horace Mann
began to influence the South and in the early fifties
the messages of the Southern governors contained
many eloquent appeals for a state system of schools
for all the children.
288 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
At this time the school systems of New Orleans,
Nashville, Charleston, Memphis, Mobile and other
Southern cities were established. They were suc-
cessful and the idea was quickly spreading to the
smaller cities and towns.
But the deluge of war and the fires of "recon-
struction" swept over the South, leveling her educa-
tional system, public and private ; destroying her
wealth and social institutions, and leaving only the
soil and the unconquerable spirit of her people.
Even during the war desperate efforts were made
to maintain schools. The minutes of the Charleston
School Board tell a pathetic story. As the shells
from the hostile batteries penetrated farther and
farther into the city, one school after another was
rendered unsafe for occupancy. The building was
abandoned but the children were housed temporarily
in sections more remote from the siege guns, and the,
public school system, founded by C. GL Memminger,
then a member of the cabinet of President Davis,
continued its beneficient work.
Development Since the War.
The work of rebuilding has necessarily been slow.
What has been done may be realized by comparing
the present status with the condition described by
the United States Commissioner of Education in his
first report, published in 1870. He says:
"Virginia is just putting a free school system into operation, but
encountering great difficulties in the lack of funds, the want of cor-
rect information of what a free school system is and in the absence
of school houses and qualified school officers and teachers.
"North Carolina has been struggling for about two years to put
a system of free schools into operation. * * Many reasons
combine to render the friends of education more fearful of defeat
than hopeful of success.
"The friends of education in Tennessee, after seeing the school
system put into operation and nearly 200,000 children enrolled, saw
their work overthrown by reactionary sentiments, save in the cities of
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 289
Nashville and Memphis, and the provisions reinacted in accordance
with which the pauper schools of the days of slavery were conducted.
"Arkansas, encountering the evils common to the regions where
slavery has been abolished, has secured a greater success than the
majority of the Southern states.
"South Carolina, among the states having the largest percentage
of illiteracy, is confident of final success in establishing free common
schools.
"Florida, although under a most zealous and competent superin-
tendent, now deceased, has hesitated in giving the greatest efficiency
to the system sought to be established, and yet presents reasons for
anticipating the general prevalence of free schools.
"Alabama, after the friends of educators had put forth most
strenuous efforts, and secured the general opening of the schools, with
hopes of permanent success in the establishment of free and universal
education, now debates the question of advancing or retreating.
"Mississippi, though commencing late, is progressing steadily and
efficiently in the establishment of a system of free schools, notwith-
standing the great and bitter opposition, appointed county superin-
tendents, collecting the school tax, and building school houses.
' ' The school code of Louisiana, containing some features well
adopted to efficiency, and administered with great energy, has encoun-
tered an opposition so persistent and fierce that its success outside
the city of New Orleans has been most unsatisfactory to its friends.
"Georgia has just passed a school law and appointed a state com-
missioner, but must wait a year for funds with which to put the
system into full operation.
' ' In Texas, no school legislation has, so far, succeeded, and no
public officers are at work for the organization of schools, her entire
people being left to grow up in ignorance, save here and there a
private enterprise throws a ray of light upon the general darkness."
The poverty of the South resulting from the war,
and the fact that the government was in the hands
of the ' * carpet-bagger ' ' and the f reedmen, are a suf-
ficient explanation of the condition described. Had
the movement which began in 1850 not been inter-
rupted and crushed by war and reconstruction, 1870
would have seen the common school system firmly
established in the South. The abolition of slavery,
however, destroyed much of the class distinction
which has characterized the Old South and brought
about a condition which since 1876 has hastened the
progress of the common school. A roll call of the
itates and a description of present conditions, as it
is given annually before the Conference for Educa-
Vol. 10— 19
290 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
tion in the South, will reveal the unanimity with
which we have adopted the system and the liberality
with which we are supporting it.
In 1870, 32 per cent, of the children in the South-
ern states between five and eighteen years of age
were in the public schools. In 1880 this had risen
to 48 per cent., in 1890 to 60 per cent, and in 1900
to 66 per cent.
In the North Atlantic states the percentage had
dropped from 78 in 1870 to 71 in 1900. As the wealth
of the South has gradually recovered from the rav-
ages of war the expenditure for public schools per
capita of total population has increased. This was
$0.68 in 1870, $0.62 in 1880, $0.98 in 1890, $1.16 in
1900, and $1.45 in 1906. The per capita is still low
but is increasing steadily.
In proportion to its wealth, the South now com-
pares very favorably with other sections of the
country in its expenditures for public schools. The
average for the United States in 1904 was 25 cents
on every $100; the average of the South was 20
cents.
The average length of the school term in the South
has increased from 94 days in 1870 to 115 days in
1906. The average for the United States is 150
days. The status of the elementary school in the
South still leaves much to be desired, but every year
marks a substantial advance. No man would now
dare to seek a public office in the South on a platform
of hostility to the public school or of retrenchment
in its support; every Southern state now has an
efficient, well-organized department of education,
every state has its Normal School or schools for the
training of its teachers, every city or town of any
importance has its graded school open nine months
in the year with efficient teachers and skilled super-
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 291
vision, and every state in the South is now pushing
into the remotest country districts the propaganda
for better schools, better school houses, better sup-
port and better teachers. Not a legislature meets
in any Southern state but makes some decided for-
ward step in school legislation. Triumphant hope-
fulness on the eve of glorious victory is now the atti-
tude of friends of popular education in the South.
It is not necessary to say that our educational
problem is complicated by the presence of two races
whose new relations to each other have been slow
in establishing themselves since the sudden destruc-
tion of the old regime. No page in our educational
history reflects greater credit on the South than
that which tells the story of our work in the educa-
tion of the colored race. Since 1870 the South from
her poverty has contributed not less than $200,-
000,000 to the education of the negro, and this has
been done in spite of the political blunders of
''reconstruction" and the misguided zeal of later
days which have tended to alienate the negro and
his best friends.
The South is prosecuting this work for the negro
with even greater willingness and efficiency since the
attitude of other sections has gradually changed
from a critical superiority to a sympathetic help-
fulness.
No sketch of Southern education should close
without an expression of gratitude to our friends in
the days of darkness — George Peabody and the Pea-
body Board of Trust. No other $3,000,000 ever accu-
mulated on the earth has done so beneficent a work
as has this fund, administered by this Board under
the direction of Dr. Barnas Sears and Dr. J. L. M.
Curry. It was an immeasurable stimulus in the
development of our present city and state school
292 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
systems and in the training of our teachers. The
George Peabody College for Teachers at Nashville,
endowed by the Board as an educational West Point
for the whole South, will be the fitting consummation
of its beneficent work and the enduring monument
to our greatest benefactor.
I can close this paper in no better way than by
quoting the educational creed of the South, adopted
on a recent 4th of July by the two thousand teachers
composing that great educational camp-meeting, the
Summer School of the South at Knoxville :
"We, teachers and citizens, students of the Summer School of the
South, representatives of every Southern state and of every phase of
educational service, assembled to celebrate this day of our national
independence, desire to voice our sense of gratitude for the heritage
handed down to us by our fathers and to express our sense of respon-
sibility to the generations thtit are to come. As an expression of our
patriotism and of a courage born of the consciousness of power to
enlarge the freedom which we this day celebrate, we unite in the
following declaration :
"I. That the genius of democracy implies opportunity made
universal; opportunity given to every man to live according to his
capacity the life of highest meaning to himself and of largest service
to humanity.
"II. That the mutual relations of individual and collective inter-
ests in our society are such that the ignorance of one individual or
of one class becomes a menace to the security of the social whole and
a handicap to its every member, while the intelligence and efficiency
of each individual contributes to the wealth and opportunity of all;
that every child born in the state thus becomes at once a social asset
and a social charge; that the education of all the children of all the
people into the highest degree of efficiency is the chief problem and
the supreme duty of our democracy.
"III. That since more than 80 per cent, of our people live in the
country and for generations to come must continue to live under
rural conditions, we express our gratitude for the steady progress
of the rural school and pledge our continued cooperation with the
forces now at work for the increase of local taxation for schools, the
lengthening of terms, and the improvement of houses and equipment.
"IV. That we commend the policy which seeks to consolidate and
centralize schools and to make these consolidated schools vital centres
of community life.
"V. That the rural library is an essential instrumentality in
overcoming the isolation of rural life and in bringing the child and
the community into relation with the larger life of humanity.
"VI. That, to the traditional curriculum which educated the child
away from his environment and prepared him for leisure or for the
ELEMENTAKY EDUCATION. 293
learned professions, should be added the sciences and the modes of
expression which will give him mastery over nature and over him-
self— this to the end that he may honor labor and find joy in pro-
ductive activity; that his surroundings may be made his instruments,
and that the plot of earth upon which he lives may become at once
the fit enyironment and the fit expression of a worthy life.
"VII. That the consolidated school with its reconstructed curri-
culum and improved machinery is after all so much dead material
which must be quickened by the personality of the teacher. Our
progress in material facilities emphasizes the call for educated
teachers, and we appeal to our states to meet this need by the more
adequate provision and equipment of high schools and normal schools.
"VIII. That the fine educational enthusiasm, the passion for
service now so manifest throughout the South calls for an adequately
trained leadership to direct it into the channels of constructive
activity. The greatest educational need of the hour is educational
statesmanship and directive capacity in the office of superintendent,
supervisor and principal. To supply this need we appeal to our states
for a more generous support of our state universities now entering
upon a career of larger life and greater efficiency.
"IX. That for the adequate training of leadership the South is in
need of an educational West Point. In the Summer School of the
South we find a suggestion of the possibilities of a central teachers '
college permanently endowed and adequately equipped. Such an
institution would supplement and reinforce local endeavor at every
point and would perform a function which no state institution can
undertake. ' '
In this creed is a New South of conserved and
developed resources, of fertile fields and busy work-
shops, where personal morality and civic righteous-
ness prevail, and the races dwell together in the
unity of mutual service; a South in which achieve-
ment and leisure bring to perfect flower the litera-
ture and art which are potent in her history and
traditions, and whose statesmanship once more takes
its proper place in the councils of a reunited Ee-
public.
WILLIAM KNOX TATE,
Principal Memminger Normal School, Charleston, S. C.
294 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
CHAPTER IX.
NORMAL EDUCATION IN THE "SOUTH,
b
'HOMAS JEFFERSON introduced into the
General Assembly of the State of Virginia as
early as 1779 a bill looking to the foundation
of common schools "for the free training of
all free children, male and female, for three years, in
reading, writing and arithmetic." This proposed
admission of girls preceded by ten years the admis-
sion of girls to the common schools of Boston, thus
placing the South, represented by Jefferson, as the
pioneer in this field of female education.
Far-seeing and patriotic citizens of South Carolina
from its earliest settlement pointed out the necessity
for public schools and advocated their establishment.
"An act for the founding and erecting of a free
school for the use of the inhabitants of South Caro-
lina" was passed by the South Carolina Assembly
April 8, 1710.
But the South as a whole was slow to follow these
and other great examples. The peculiar social con-
ditions at the South and the prejudice against the
education of the masses inherited from England by
the ruling classes prevented the establishment of any
adequate system of free public education for the
children before the war. Being slow to make proper
provision for schools for the children the South was,
of course, still more backward in realizing the im-
portance of training schools for teachers, and no
school of that kind was established in the Southern
states until long after they were in successful opera-
tion in other parts of the United States. There were
leaders in the South who clearly saw the necessity
NORMAL EDUCATION. 295
for the professional training of teachers about the
same time it was seen by leaders at the North and
long before such professional training was provided,
and who attempted to arouse the public to this vital
need but without avail. Dr. Philip Lindsley in an
address delivered when inaugurated president of
Cumberland College, Nashville, Tenn., in 1825, advo-
cated a " teachers' seminary urging that a teacher
needs training for his work as imperatively as the
lawyer and physician." He went before the legis-
lature of Tennessee the next year and pleaded for
seminaries for teachers but without success.
There seems to be some question as to who in
America first suggested that teachers should be spe-
cially trained for their work. An article in the June
number of the Massachusetts Magazine of the year
1789 advocating special teacher-training is accepted
as the first suggestion of this kind in that part of
the country, but forty years before this article ap-
peared "a school was established in Philadelphia,
Pa., one of whose objects was the education of young
men to be teachers." The first normal school was
established in this country in 1839 at Lexington,
Mass.
The establishment, form and development of nor-
mal schools in the United States was strongly in-
fluenced by the normal schools of Europe, especially
of Prussia.
The normal school idea was old in Europe when it
first appeared in this country. It was originated by
Mulcaster in England in 1561, but did not attract
much attention in the educational world, or make
much impression until the establishment of ''Teach-
ers' Seminaries" in Prussia during the years 1735
to 1819.
The first normal school in the South was estab-
296 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
lished at Charleston, S. C., by act of the General
Assembly passed Dec. 21, 1857, and was called the
"Girls' High and Normal School." Its work was
interrupted by the war, but it was reorganized after
the war as a local institution and is now accomplish-
ing excellent results, mainly for the city of Charles-
ton, which supports it. This school receives no ap-
propriation from the state.
The state of Alabama established one normal
school for the training of white male and female
teachers in 1872, and one for colored students in
1874. This normal school for colored students was
the first school supported by a Southern state for
the higher education of the negro.
The Peabody Normal College at Nashville, Tenn.,
named for the great philanthropist, George Peabody,
who gave in 1867 to Southern education $3,000,000,
the greatest sum ever given by one man up to that
time for the education of the whole people, was
established in 1875 at the suggestion of the Trus-
tees of the Peabody Fund in carrying out their
policy of managing the trust committed to them
for "the general and permanent improvement of
education in the South." After a careful survey of
the whole field and a consideration of all the facts
the Peabody Board were convinced that the greatest
need of the South was a supply of trained teachers
and they authorized their agent, Dr. Barnas Sears,
to establish and foster normal schools. Mainly
through the efforts of Dr. Sears and of Dr. J. L.
M. Curry, who was elected General Agent of the
Peabody Board in 1881 to succeed Dr. Sears, and on
account of the demonstration given by the Peabody
Normal College of the value of teacher-training, the
different Southern states were led to establish nor-
mal schools, until now every state in the South sup-
NORMAL EDUCATION. 297
ports in whole or in part one or more schools for the
training of teachers.
Some of these schools besides the Peabody Normal
College were established as the direct result of finan-
cial aid given by the Peabody Board, notably the
Winthrop Normal and Industrial College of South
Carolina, and the same Houston Normal School of
Texas. The influence and help of the Peabody Board
in building up and shaping the educational systems
of the South cannot be over-estimated noc. too highly
commended. Dr. Curry makes the statement that
"at the origin of the Peabody Fund not a single
Southern state within the field of its operations had
a system of free public schools and only in a few
cities were any such schools to be found. No state
organization existed through which this fund could
reach the people."
What has been accomplished for education in the
South since the war cannot be properly appreciated
without a knowledge of the conditions and difficulties
existing there at that time. The South was left
prostrated financially and industrially after the war.
The property values had decreased by 1870 as a
result of the war and reconstruction to the extent
of $2,000,000,000.
The cost of the war alone to the South was one-
tenth of her male population and three billions of
property. Reconstruction left upon the South in its
impoverished condition a crushing bonded debt of
over $300,000,000.
Under such a staggering load as this and with the
old system of society overturned and new and un-
tried problems to face, the Southern people bravely
set to work to rebuild their fortunes and institutions.
Just as France after the Eevolution, and Germany
after Jena turned to education for the reconstruc-
298 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
tion and regeneration of the state, so tlie South,
after the war, turned to universal education as the
chief factor in the rebuilding of the country and the
recovery of its lost prestige.
A comparatively few noble souls lead in this move-
ment, having to contend with not only a lack of
means to build and maintain schools but also much
inherited prejudice against the free education of all
the people.
The advancement made in education in the South
since the war, considering all the difficulties met and
overcome, is marvellous. Just after the war not one
of the Southern states had a normal school for either
race. Now every Southern state has one or more
such schools and has "state-established, state-con-
trolled, state-supported schools for both races, with-
out any legal discrimination as to benefits con-
ferred. ' '
There are now, according to the Eeport of the
United States Commissioner of Education for 1907,
thirty-eight public normal schools in the Southern
States distributed as follows: Alabama, six;
Arkansas, two; Florida, one; Georgia, four; Ken-
tucky, four ; Louisiana, two ; Mississippi, two ; North
Carolina, six ; Oklahoma, four ; South Carolina, two ;
Tennessee, one; Texas, three; Virginia, three.
Of this number eleven are for negroes. There are
also some private normal schools in these states, but
I do not include these schools in this article because
their work is small compared with that of the state
institutions and because it is becoming smaller year
by year on account of the growth of the state schools
which are occupying the field more and more thor-
oughly each year.
Exception must be made to this statement in the
case of some of the private normal schools for
NOEMAL EDUCATION. 299
negroes in the South which receive substantial finan-
cial assistance from Northern philanthropists and
are better equipped and better supported, for this
reason, than the public normal schools for negroes.
The most notable example of this kind of school for
negroes is the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Insti-
tute of Alabama. The Hampton Normal and Agri-
cultural Institute is partly supported by public
funds and for that reason is included among the pub-
lic normal schools.
From the same report of the United States Com-
missioner of Education we find that the normal
schools of these states report 865 teachers for 15,867
students, of which numbers 379 of the teachers and
4,436 of the students are negroes.
The same report shows that so far as the normal
schools have reported, the appropriations from pub-
lic funds for the support of the normal schools in
these states amounted to $546,192 for the year
1906-07, $118,518 of this amount being for negro
schools, and the value of buildings and grounds in-
cluding furniture and equipment was $4,567,245, of
which amount $1,661,945 represented the value of
grounds, buildings, furniture and equipment for the
negro schools.
The history of the development and struggles of
the normal schools of the South reads very much like
that of the normal schools of the North. They have
had their periods of trial, depression, stress and con-
flict and have come out of all victorious and are now
firmly entrenched in the hearts of the people.
The Southern normal schools, like those of the
other sections of the country, are organized to pre-
pare teachers for the public schools and to meet the
needs, conditions, and requirements existing in the
states in which they are located. The normal school
300 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
for whites differs from the normal school for negroes
as the conditions obtaining among the two races dif-
fer, and both differ from the Northern normal
schools as conditions at the South differ from those
at the North. Public schools at the South have not
been in existence as long as at the North, and hence,
public school standards are not yet as high at the
South, although they are now being made higher
very rapidly. Again the South is more generally
agricultural than the North, and more sparsely set-
tled, and the people are not so crowded together in
great centers of population but live more generally
in homes, either their own or rented.
The people of the South, forced by the impoverish-
ment and devastation of the war to develop the nat-
ural resources of the country, have awakened to the
necessity of industrial training. Her fertile fields,
rich deposits of coal and ore, great forests, and mag-
nificent water power are yet only partially developed
and utilized, and they can be properly developed and
utilized only with skilled, industrially trained labor.
For these reasons the Southern normal school has
had to provide more academic work than is usually
provided for in a normal school at the North and
more work in domestic science and arts, manual
training and elementary agriculture.
There is a strong movement to have the public
schools of the South more closely related to the
homes of the people and to their needs, and teachers
nmst be prepared to teach such schools. Hence, there
has arisen in the South a somewhat new type of
normal school, represented by the state normal and
industrial colleges of South Carolina, North Carolina
and Georgia, in which are taught, besides the
ordinary branches of a regular normal school, do-
mestic science, domestic arts, elementary agricul-
NORMAL EDUCATION. 301
ture, dairying, library methods, and commercial
studies.
Apart from the necessity for subject matter in
the course of study of the Southern normal school on
account of the lack of preparation in scholarship of
the entering students for college work it is the pre-
vailing opinion at the South that a normal school
should fit its students academically as well as pro-
fessionally for the vocation of teaching as is done in
the majority of the normal schools in the United
States.
The Southern normal schools offer a variety of
courses of study to meet the needs of their students.
The usual course extends over four years. This
course at the Winthrop Normal and Industrial Col-
lege of South Carolina comprises mathematics, Eng-
lish, history, Latin, French or German, reading,
physiology and hygiene, drawing, sewing, cooking,
zoology and botany, sight singing, manual training,
physics, chemistry, phychology, pedagogy, geology,
child study, practice in the training school, library
methods, physical training, and elementary agricul-
ture. The degree of A.B. is awarded upon the com-
pletion of this course.
There are special courses for the completion of
which students receive certificates. Instruction in
vocal and instrumental music is provided for at most
of the normal schools of the South. Students pay a
tuition fee for music.
The English scholarship plan has taken root in
some of the Southern states. The Peabody College
gave a number of scholarships for years.
The state of South Carolina maintains 124 scholar-
ships in its State normal school at an annual charge
to the state of $12,400.
In most, if not all, of the Southern states the
302 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
diploma of the State Normal College is equivalent
to a life license to teach in the public schools of the
state.
All of the normal schools without exception have
schools of children for observation and practice com-
prising the grades from the kindergarten to the ninth
and sometimes higher.
The social and religious life of the students in
Southern normal schools is made much of and a fine
college spirit usually exists among the students.
The management of the internal affairs of a nor-
mal school in the South is placed in the hands of the
faculty and president, and the executive is given
large powers and is held largely responsible for re-
sults. A board of trustees elected by the state leg-
islature or appointed by the governor is in general
control and appoints the president and teachers.
The support of these schools is usually provided
by the state by direct appropriations.
The South has made great strides in education in
recent years but is destined to make still greater
progress in the future on account of the more gen-
eral realization of the people of the value of educa-
tion and because of the prosperity of the country
resulting from the remarkable industrial develop-
ment throughout the Southern states.
Dr. Wickliffe Rose makes the statement that
within twenty years, from 1880 to 1900, the South
increased its wages paid to factory hands from
$76,000,000 to $350,000,000; its production of pig
iron from 397,000 tons to 2,500,000 tons ; its output
of coal from 6,000,000 tons in 1880 to 50,000,000 tons
in 1900. During the same period the total output of
her manufactured products was increased from
$338,791,898 in 1880 to $1,173,422,565 in 1900. The
development of textile industries within the same
MEDICAL EDUCATION. 303
period was phenomenal. The number of spindles
was increased from 667,000 in 1880 to 5,000,000 in
1899. In the one year, 1899, there were erected in
the South 365 new cotton mills as against seventeen
in the New England states.
A people who can accomplish such results as these
in industrial life in the face of so many difficulties
can accomplish equally great results in educational
matters, especially with the means in hand furnished
by these industrial activities.
In the preparation of this article I have consulted papers and re-
ports by Dr. E. O. Lyte, Dr. M. A. Newell, Dr. J. P. Gordy, Dr. J. L.
M. Curry, Dr. Wiekliffe Rose, Dr. A. D. Mayo, Mr. Thomas Nelson
Page, the Committee on Normal Schools of the National Education
Association, and the United States Bureau of Education, and I wish
here to make grateful acknowledgment of the help received from
them all.
D. B. JOHNSON,
President of Winihrop Normal and Industrial College.
CHAPTER X.
MEDICAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH.
Medical Practice in the Colonies.
HE earliest history of the settlers in the
South would involve, of course, nothing of
the teaching of medicine and not much of
the practice. There were few physicians
and their services were much in demand over a
widely extended territory which they were able to
cover inadequately at best and could not have cov-
ered at all but for the devotion and hardihood which
seemed generically attached to the character of the
frontier doctor and for the rugged constitutions of
the people and the wholesome nature of their lives.
304 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
In most communities there was a well received tenet
that the older women were skilled in the treatment
of disease, and where one of these was a close
observer and had stowed away the results of long
experience, she was likely to meet with success which
would extend her reputation until she became the
acknowledged medical authority for miles around.
To the success of such practice there was, again, the
element of the character of the people, but quite as
important was the fact that the materia medica
rarely contained anything of a hurtful sort. It would
be inadequate to regard the practice of these per-
sons as confined to skill in the treatment of wounds
—romantically considered part of the accomplish-
ments of the heroines of the Middle Ages — or to
restrict it to the cases of labor which form so large
a part of such practice in remote districts at pres-
ent. These earlier workers placed no narrow limits
to their fields and, while they rarely invaded the
demain of surgery, there was little in the bounds of
medicine which they did not attempt and, to their
credit be it said, no little which they accomplished.
There were, however, at every period of the colo-
nial history men who had received professional
training in the schools of Europe and this was par-
ticularly true of those portions of the South where
Spanish or French influence began to predominate.
And as the years passed, and the increasing num-
bers and wealth of the Southern people began to
voice the need of a thoroughly equipped native med-
ical service, many of the brightest young men in
the South heard the call and stepped forth to seek
in the distant schools the best equipment possible
at that clay. A little later the Revolutionary War
gave a great impulse to the cause of medical and
surgical education and laid the foundation for both
MEDICAL EDUCATION. 305
a popular and professional demand for a properly
qualified body of practitioners.
Medical Colleges in the South.
Thus, even before the country had recuperated
from a long and devastating war, medical colleges
began to spring up in various parts of the South.
In 1804, at Baltimore, the Maryland College of Medi-
cine was chartered ; in 1817 the department of medi-
cine of Transylvania University was organized at
Lexington, Ky. ; in 1819. the medical department of
the University of Virginia was chartered and organ-
ized for work seven years later ; in 1823 the Medical
College of South Carolina was begun; and so on,
until there are now in the Southern states, including
West Virginia, fifty-six medical schools with an
aggregate annual enrollment of over 8,600 students
and about 1,800 annual graduates.
Birmingham Medical College, Birmingham.
Medical Department of the University of Alabama, Mobile.
ARKANSAS.
University of Arkansas Medical Department. Little Rock.
College of Physicians and Surgeons, Little Rock.
GEORGIA.
Atlanta College of Physicians and Surgeons, Atlanta.
Atlanta School of Medicine, Atlanta.
Georgia College of Eclectic Medicine and Surgery, Atlanta.
Medical College of Georgia, Augusta.
KENTUCKY.
Kentucky School of Medicine, Louisville.
Louisville and Hospital Medical College, Louisville.
University of Louisville Medical Department, Louisville.
Southwestern Homeopathic College. Louisville.
Louisville National Medical College, Colored, Louisville.
LOUISIANA.
Medical Department of The Tulane University of Louisiana, New Orleans.
Flint Medical College of New Orleans University, Colored, New Orleans.
MARYLAND.
Johns-Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore.
College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore.
University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore.
Baltimore Medical College, Baltimore.
Woman's Medical College of Baltimore, Baltimore.
Maryland Medical College, Baltimore.
Atlantic Medical College, Baltimore.
Vol. 10—20
306 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
MISSISSIPPI.
Mississippi Medical College, Meridian.
University of Mississippi Medical Department, Oxford and Vicksburg.
MISSOURI.
Department of Medicine of the University of Missouri, Columbia.
University Medical College of Kansas City, Kansas City.
Kansas City Habnemann Medical College, Kansas City.
The Ensworth Medical College, St. Joseph.
Washington University Medical Department, St. Louis.
St. Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis.
St. Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons, St. Louis.
Barnes Medical College, St. Louis.
Homeopathic Medical College of Missouri, St. Louis.
American Medical College, Eclectic, St. Louis.
Hippocratean College of Medicine, St. Louis. (The Missouri State Board
of Health reports that this college is not in good standing.)
NORTH CAROLINA.
(University of North Carolina Medical Department, Chapel Hill and Raleigh.
North Carolina Medical College, Charlotte.
Leonard School of Medicine, Colored, Raleigh.
Wake Forest School of Medicine, Wake Forest.
SOUTH CAROLINA.
The Medical College of the State of South Carolina, Charleston.
TENNESSEE.
Chattanooga Medical College, Chattanooga.
Tennessee Medical College, Knoxville.
Knoxville Medical College, Colored, Knoxville.
College of Physicians and Surgeons, Memphis.
Memphis Hospital Medical College, Memphis.
Medical College of the University of West Tennessee, Colored, Memphis.
Vanderbilt University, Medical Department, Nashville.
University of Nashville, Medical Department, Nashville.
University of Tennessee, Medical Department, Nashville.
Meharry Medical College, Colored, Nashville.
Medical Department of the University of the South, Sewanee.
TEXAS.
Baylor University College of Medicine, Dallas.
Southwestern University Medical College, Dallas.
College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dallas.
Medical Department of Fort Worth University, Fort Worth.
University of Texas, Department of Medicine, Galveston.
VIRGINIA.
University of Virginia, Department of Medicine, Charlottesvilie.
Medical College of Virginia, Richmond.
University College of Medicine, Richmond.
WEST VIRGINIA.
West Virginia Univeristy College of Medicine, Morgantown.
Equipment and Curriculum of the Medical Colleges.
As to the work done by these schools and the
bearing of that work upon the progress of medical
education in the South, while results have not been
so brilliant as the most enthusiastic might demand,
they are sufficiently marked to inspire reasonable
hope for the future. The inception and gradual
enlargement of the work have followed much the
same lines as those prevailing in other regions of
MEDICAL EDUCATION. 307
the country. Most of the earlier schools gave
courses of only two years and the work of the second
year was generally a repetition of the first. The
University of Virginia was for a long time the only
one to offer a graded course. None of them imposed
any educational requirements for admission except,
in some cases, that a student should have spent
three years or more in the office of some reputable
practicing physician. The curricula were not as a
rule extensive and but little provision was made for
dissection or clinical work.
Such were the conditions which prevailed for
years among the Southern schools. But the mar-
velous professional awakening of the last quarter of
a century — the tremendous strides of knowledge
which are bringing the practice of medicine and sur-
gery within the domain of the exact sciences — at
once brought to light the inadequacy of these schools
in equipment and in curriculum proper to the best
modern medical teaching. The necessity of improve-
ment was everywhere conceded and this improve-
ment has been carried on with increasing vigor and
success. Within the past two decades the length
of the course in almost all of the Southern schools
has been increased, first to three, and then to four
years ; entrance requirements have been established
and extended, until now virtually all these schools
require a high school course, or at least two years
of such a course, including some knowledge of Latin
and science. The lines of work have been broadened
by the addition of many subjects and most particu-
lar improvement has been made in the laboratory
and in clinical work. Some of the schools have hos-
pitals of their own as a part of their equipment.
Others have established special relations with inde-
pendent hospitals and, so obtained the requisite
308 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
clinical advantages. The Association of American
Medical Colleges, to which many Southern schools
belong, and the Southern Medical College Associa-
tion have contributed greatly to the improvement in
the general standard of work as well in the asso-
ciated institutions, as in the outside schools, which
have necessarily felt their influence.
State Aid to Medical Colleges.
The various State governments have aided the
work of improvement in some few cases by appro-
priating money to aid in supporting medical schools
or by supporting, at the public expense, the medical
department of the State university. But so far the
states have done their chief work by prescribing
higher standards of medical qualification for license
to practice within the state. The states have not
yet attained the dignity nor the equity of uniformity
and reciprocal recognition of such standards. It
may be that by some belated working of the old
leaven of state sovereignty it would be particularly
difficult to secure interstate harmony on this matter
in the South.
No matter whence it arises, the tendency against
uniformity in this subject is no fortunate one and
might be reversed with considerable gain.
Bank of Colleges.
Judging of cause by effect, it might throw light
on the general question of the efficiency of the med-
ical colleges of the South to cite the list of such
schools ranked in the first position by the organ of
the American Medical Association. The investiga-
tion covers the schools of the entire country and for
the success of their students in passing the various
state examinations rank in the first place is given
to the Birmingham Medical College, the medical
MEDICAL EDUCATION. 309
departments of the universities of Missouri, North
Carolina, Texas and Virginia, the Johns Hopkins
Medical School, the medical department of Tulane
University and the Woman's Medical College of
Baltimore.
Accomplishments of Southern Medical Colleges.
In many respects the same characteristics must
have marked the evolution of the Southern medical
colleges as have marked that of such schools else-
where. If in genius, growth or present status they
may be differentiated, the fact necessarily arises
out of the physical, economic and social conditions
of their habitat. From the very beginning the nat-
ural tastes and inherent instincts of the Southern
people rendered them averse to aggregation and
city building, and served to disperse them into
widely separated homes and into agricultural
employment and rural life. Up to the end of the
War of Secession there were in the entire South
few cities large enough to sustain a number of phy-
sicians sufficient for the faculty needs of a medical
school and, even now, there are few colleges in a
position to "call" desirable men from outside. The
necessity of support for a large slave population —
which could be realized only by the result of the
roughest and most primitive labor — was always a
great incentive to plantation life and it is little
wonder that, when interest and taste and dignity
and comfort all combine to paint the joys of such
a life, it should become overwhelmingly alluring an
that the ranks of the medical profession were no
to any considerable extent filled in the older days
by recruits from the dominant social stratum to
which law and politics presented a far more
attractive and congenial life.
310 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
A large proportion of the schools referred to have
done, and are still doing, acceptable work and from
year to year are sending out men excellently
equipped for their beneficent calling, and many of
these have attained more than local reputation and
honor. It would, of course, be impossible to com-
press within the narrow limits assigned to this
sketch any sort of detailed history either of the
institutions themselves or of their alumni.
In estimating the Southern schools of medicine,
and their value to the nation, mainly, of course, by
the accomplishment of the men whom they have sent
out, one is disposed to marvel that they have done
so much with the means at their command and, bear-
ing the conditions constantly in mind, to adjudge
them a most honorable place among the great agen-
cies to which the real advancement of America is
due. But all the sentiments of the investigator must
be tinged with regret for the loss of the higher
accomplishment which has been denied by poverty.
By the consent of every thinking man it is agreed
that no worthy sort of advanced teaching may be
done at the cost of university fees. The interest on
splendid endowments and liberal incidental gifts
are needed to supplement the teaching income of all
the great colleges; and medical schools, from the
extraordinary cost of their upkeep, are particularly
subject to this rule. Had the medical colleges of
the South enjoyed — as pro bono publico they cer-
tainly should have had — an income commensurate
with their needs and guaranteed by the states of
their location, they would by now have proved incal-
culable boons to humanity and would have attained
that place of usefulness, the ideal, to which liberal
and wisely directed state appropriation may bring
them still.
MEDICAL EDUCATION. 311
BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Adolphus, J. : Medical Teaching and Medical
Colleges in the United States (Medical Times, Vol. XXXIII, p. 348,
Chicago, 1900); Baker, H. B. : Evolution of the American Medical
College (Bulletin of the American Academy of Medicine, Vol. V, p.
489, 1901); Bevan, A. D. : Medical Education in the United States
(American Medical Association Journal, Vol. LI, p. 566, 1908) ; Bil-
lings, F. : Medical Education in the United States (Journal of the
American Medical Association, Vol. XL, p. 1271, 1903; also in Bos-
ton Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. CXLVIII, p. 487; also in New
York Medical Journal, Vol. LXXVI, p. 817, 1903; Dabney, S. G.:
Medical Education in the United States (Louisville Monthly Journal
of Medicine and Surgery, Vol. XI, p. 378, 1904) ; Davis, N. S. : . Con-
tributions to the History of Medical Education, 1776-1876; Medical
Schools and Medical Teachers Sixty Tears Ago (Medical Standard,
Vol. XXV, p. 463, 1902), and Requirements for Admission to Medical
Schools (New York Medical Journal, Vol. LXXVIII, p. 205, 1903;
Dodson, J. M. : The Medical Department of Tulane University (Med-
ical News, Vol. LXXX, p. 481, 1902); Elkin, W. S.: A Plea for
Higher Medical Education in the South (Atlanta Medical and Surgi-
cal Journal, New Ser., Vol. XI, p. 531, 1894-95) ; F. G. B.: List and
Standing of Medical Schools in the United States (Medical Notes and
Queries, Vol. Ill, p. 163, Lancaster, Pa., 1907) ; Grandy, L. B.: The
Present Demand for Better Medical Education in the South (Atlanta
Medical and Surgical Journal, New Ser., Vol. IX, p. 513, 1893;
Hardwecke, H. J. : Medical Education and Practice, 1880, Illinois
State Board of Health (Report on Medical Education, etc., 1891) ;
Jordon, D. S. : The American Medical College and Its Requirements
(Bulletin American Academy of Medicine, Vol. for 1908, p. 29,
East on, Pa.), and Medical Schools of the United States (Journal of
the American Medical Association, Vol. XLIX, p. 576, 1907) ; Osier,
Win. : The Functions of a State Faculty (Transactions of the Medi-
cal Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland, 1897); Paine, J. F. Y.: His-
tory of Medical Teaching in Texas (Texas Medical Journal, Vol.
XXII, p. 173, 1906) and Status of Medical Education in the United
States (Transactions of the Texas Medical Associations for 1892,
p. 235) ; Pearce, S. : Comparison of Medical Examinations in Dif-
ferent States (Philadelphia Medical Journal, Vol. V, p. 546, 1900) ;
Peter, E. : History of the Medical Department of Transylvania Uni-
versity, 1905 (Filson Club Publications, No. 20); Puschmann, T. :
History of Medical Education from the Most Remote to the Most Re-
cent Times (1891) ; Warren, J. C. : Medical Education in the United
States (Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol CXXIX, p. 285,
1893; also in Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol.
XXI, p. 375, 1893); Webster, G. W.: Report on the Curricula of
American Medical Colleges (Neiv York Medical Journal, Vol. LXXX,
pp. 145, 205, 1904) ; Whitehead, E. H. : Evolution of Medical Edu-
cation in America (Bulletin of the University of Virginia, Vol. VII,
p. 1, 1907).
GEORGE BEN JOHNSTON,
Formerly President Richmond Academy of Medicine and Surgery,
President of American Surgical Association, 1904.
313 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
CHAPTER XI.
THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH.
*
'HEOLOGICAL education in the South
originally consisted of courses of study
pursued by individuals from among the
young men of the churches preparing for
the ministry, under the direction of older men in
the ministry. The second stage was the establish-
ment of colleges or secondary schools for the edu-
cation of the ministry. The majority of denomina-
tional colleges in the South were founded chiefly to
educate ministers of the Gospel. In the earlier
days industrial features were quite common in these
denominational colleges. The third stage was the
coming of the theological seminary.
Theological Schools.
The pioneers in the establishment of theological
seminaries were the Presbyterians. The oldest dis-
tinctively theological seminary in the South among
the numerous Protestant denominations is Union
Theological Seminary of Richmond, Va., which
was founded in 1812. Its present faculty num-
bers seven and its student body seventy-five.
Another Presbyterian school is the Columbia Theo-
logical Seminary at Columbia, S. C., which was
founded in 1828. Its faculty numbers four and its
student body twenty-seven. The Presbyterians of
the South have, including institutions for the educa-
tion of colored students, a total of seven schools for
theological training. There is a school for colored
students at Tuscaloosa, Ala., and another supported
by northern Presbyterians at Charlotte, N. C.
THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 313
Besides the schools named in the above list there is
a theological department in the Southwestern Pres-
byterian University at Clarksville, Tenn., and a
Presbyterian Theological Seminary at Austin, Tex.
The last organized and one of the most important
of the Presbyterian schools is the Presbyterian Sem-
inary of Kentucky, founded in 1901. This school
was consolidated out of the Louisville Presbyterian
Seminary, founded in 1890, and the Danville Pres-
byterian Seminary, founded in 1853, and is jointly
maintained by the Northern and Southern churches.
The Cumberland Presbyterians maintain a theo-
logical seminary at Lebanon, Tenn. This school was
founded in 1852. It has six in its faculty and in
the session of 1907-08 its student body numbered
thirty-nine.
The Evangelical Lutherans have two theological
schools in the South. Concordia Seminary, in St.
Louis, Mo., with 185 students and seven teachers,
was founded in 1839.
One of the earliest of the Southern schools is the
Lutheran Theological Seminary at Mount Pleasant,
S. C. It was founded in 1830; its faculty numbers
five and its student body sixteen. Southern Bap-
tists were among the early arrivals in the field of
theological education. They founded a school
known as the Western Baptist Theological Institute
at Covington, Ky., in the year 1839. This school
was jointly supported by Northern and Southern
Baptists, but owing to the controversies growing
out of the slavery question its career was brief.
When its doors were closed its remaining assets
were turned over to Georgetown College at George-
town, Ky.
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary was
founded in 1859 at Greenville, S. C., and was
314 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
removed to Louisville in 1878. This school from
the date of its origin has been notable for several
features which mark it as a pioneer in theological
education. It was the first theological seminary to
adopt the elective system in its courses of study. It
has been notable from the outset for its thorough
courses in the English Bible. These are taught > by
the professors of Hebrew and Greek and are given
a most conspicuous place in the seminary work. All
other theological schools which have English Bible
courses, have adopted them in recent years. The
school at Louisville has had them from the begin-
ning. A third characteristic of this school is that
it has from its inception welcomed students of dif-
ferent grades of preparation. This arrangement has
worked well, although an increasing ratio of the
men enrolled has been college men. At present
between 85 and 90 per cent, of the total enrollment
is of college men. This school is also remarkable
for the large student body, which numbers usually
between 275 and 300 men. In the session of 1906-07
the enrollment was 294. The faculty numbers nine.
Southern Baptists have pursued the policy of con-
centration rather than diffusion in theological edu-
cation. Hence the strength and influence of the
Louisville school.
The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
at Waco, Texas, was originally the Bible department
of Baylor University. It became a seminary in the
complete sense about three years ago and finds that
in the great state of Texas, which equals in area
that of many other states, there is a wide field of
usefulness. Its faculty numbers seven and its stu-
dent body varies from 100 to 200 men. Some of
these also pursue undergraduate work in Baylor
University.
THEOLOGICAL EDUCATIOX. 315
There is also at present a Baptist theological
school maintained in connection with William Jewell
College of Liberty, Mo., which enrolls more than a
hundred students annually and thus renders effect-
ive service to the Baptists of Missouri. The Free-
will Baptists maintain an effective theological
seminary at Ayden, N. C., and in 1898 it had four
teachers and sixty-five pupils.
Among Southern Baptists many of the colleges
have Bible courses and a few add theological studies
of one kind or another for the benefit of ministerial
students. The drift of sentiment among Southern
Baptists, however, is in the direction of restricting
college work to college studies proper and not to
attempt to do the work of the theological seminary.
The one exception is in the matter of English Bible.
There is a quite general sentiment in favor of Eng-
lish Bible courses in the colleges.
The Christian Church, or the Church of Disciples,
established the Christian Bible College in Lexing-
ton, Ky., in 1865. There are five in the faculty and
the student body numbers 165. This school is the
leading theological school of the Church of Disciples
and exerts a very wide influence among the people
of that name, especially in Kentucky and the Middle
West. This body also maintains a School of Evan-
gelists at Kimberlin Heights, Tenn., with more than
100 students for the ministry. Like nearly all the
denominations in the South, the Disciples have
numerous colleges with students for the ministry in
attendance to a greater or less extent.
Theological education in the Methodist Episcopal
Church South has passed through several stages.
First came the conference studies for young min-
isters prescribed by the General Conference. These
courses were for a long time quite meager and inade-
316 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
quate. Later theological branches were introduced
into the courses of study at the various colleges. At
present the majority of Methodist colleges, and in
some cases secondary schools, have limited courses
in theology. The wisdom of this plan, however, is
being called in question by some. The Biblical
department of Vanderbilt University, at Nashville,
Tenn., was established in 1875. This is of course
the leading centre of theological education for
Southern Methodists. It enjoys the distinction of
having established in 1902 the most successful corre-
spondence course to be found in the South. In 1907
it enrolled nearly a thousand students in the corre-
spondence courses.
In both the two great popular denominations of
the South, the Baptist and Methodist, the establish-
ment and maintenance of theological seminaries
have encountered serious opposition. The found-
ing of the Biblical department of Vanderbilt Univer-
sity was regarded by the Methodists generally in the
language of a Methodist writer, as the birth of an
"unwelcome child." The movement to raise
$300.000 for its endowment, which was endorsed by
the General Conference in 1894, has had only very
partial success.
Among Southern Baptists also more or less oppo-
sition has attended the progress of the school at
Louisville. In spite of this, however, the school has
succeeded in acquiring about half a million of pro-
ductive endowment and three or four hundred thou-
sand dollars in plant and real estate. Among the
Baptists the opposition is slowly giving way as the
masses of the people learn the real value of the
work done at their school. Doubtless this is also
true in large measure in the Methodist body. Per-
haps it ought not to surprise us to find this wide-
THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION.. 317
spread prejudice against theological seminaries in
these two great denominations when we recall the
pertinent facts. Both of them have been notably
successful in winning the uneducated masses, as
well as the better educated. Both have had as lead-
ers in many sections men without even college train-
ing, and yet with great native ability and power,
whose influence has often been against the idea of
a ministry trained in the schools. The inability of
the South to extend the public school system suffi-
ciently to meet the needs of the people since the war
has operated to prevent the spread of intelligence
and in some places to leave the people with their
prejudices and narrow outlook. Time and education
alone will cure this evil.
The Methodist Protestants have two schools for
the training of ministers. One is at Westminster,
Md., and has six teachers and thirty-three pupils;
the other, at Tehuacana, Texas, has nine teachers
and eighty pupils.
Theological education in the Protestant Episcopal
Church of the South had its formal beginning in
the establishment of the Virginia Theological Semi-
nary at Alexandria, Va., at the close of the first
quarter of the last century. This school has from
thirty to fifty students each session, and its endow-
ment is sufficient to maintain the work on its present
basis. Among its graduates have been some of the
most distinguished of the Episcopal clergy, the late
Bishop Phillips Brooks of Massachusetts being one
of the number. There is also a theological depart-
ment connected with the Protestant Episcopal school
at Sewanee, Tenn., the University of the South,
which has rendered most effective service in the
education of the Episcopal clergy of the South. The
318 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
courses of study in these schools are thorough and
a high degree of efficiency marks the work done.
The Roman Catholics of the South maintain
numerous institutions for the training of the priest-
hood in the South. The oldest of these is St. Mary's
Seminary, Baltimore, Md., which has seventeen
teachers and 195 pupils. It was founded in 1791.
It is the oldest theological institution in the South.
Other institutions of the Eoman Catholics are St.
Bernard Abbey, St. Bernard College; a seminary at
St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg, Md. ; Redemptorist
College, at Ilchester, Md. ; Woodstock College,
Woodstock, Md. ; a seminary at Mt. St. Clement's
College, De Soto, Mo.; Kenrick Theological Semi-
nary, St. Louis, Mo.; Department of Theology, St.
Mary's College, Belmont, N. C. No other religious
denomination maintains so many schools for train-
ing the ministry nor has a total attendance so large
in the South as the Roman Catholics.
The limits of this article do not admit of further
details as to theological schools. The work done
for the negroes by various bodies would make an
interesting chapter in itself. This is of recent origin,
and is yet in its initial stages in large measure. The
Presbyterians, the Methodists, the Disciples, the
Episcopalians, the Baptists, and others are striving
to do what they may to equip and render efficient
the negro ministry. The Southern negro has exhib-
ited a decided tendency in recent years to rely upon
himself in missionary and theological matters and
is attaining thus a much higher degree of efficiency.
Some Characteristics and Results.
We may now consider briefly some characteristics
of Southern theological education as seen in the men
trained as well as in the methods employed. In the
THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 319
statement which follows the aim is to interpret
Southern theological education from the point of
view of its inward spirit and to understand its pecu-
liarities in the light of that spirit.
First, then, Southern theological education has
sought to emphasize religion itself, rather than
thought about religion. There have been creeds and
formularies, of course, and in some bodies these
have been too slavishly followed, and the tendency
has been too often to worship the definition rather
than the God behind the definition. Notwithstand-
ing this, however, the accent has in the main been
upon the emotional and devotional rather than upon
the intellectual, that is, upon the fact side rather
than upon the thought side of religion. This has
been due in part to temperamental and climatic
causes. Some have supposed that the Southern type
of mentality is averse to the more severe forms of
intellectual effort. This, however, may well be
questioned in view of the intellectual achievements
of southern countries like Italy and Greece, as well
as the South itself.
As a result of the central place accorded to the
idea of religion as contrasted with thought about
religion has been the remarkable stress upon evan-
gelism, or the direct appeal to the sinner in the
revival meeting. Perhaps nowhere on earth to-day
can be found so large a proportion of the ministry
of all denominations who are skillful evangelists as
in the South. This evangelistic tendency has led to
a variety of results, some good and some evil.
Among them may be named the comparative neglect
of the didactic or pedagogical element in preaching.
This in turn issues in too little emphasis upon the
ethical or moral contents of faith; and out of fhis
has grown the difficulty of making connection* be-
320 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
tween the pulpit and social and civic life. At best
the latter task is difficult, but the difficulty is greatly
enhanced when a fundamental attitude is in the way.
The problem is not that of forsaking evangelism for
the other things but of connecting religion with all
its legitimate results.
Another result of the strong evangelistic tendency
has been the equally strong doctrinal conservatism.
Southern conservatism in doctrinal matters is not
to be explained merely on the view that the ministry
is inherently averse to new truth. It grows very
largely out of the fact that the old truth has worked
well. When you conceive religion as a thought pro-
cess it is one thing; but when you conceive it as a
propaganda it is quite another. In the former case
the supreme thing will seem to be individualism,
freedom, originality ; in the latter fixed beliefs, tried
and tested doctrines, useful and successful creeds.
The latter is the pragmatic way of regarding truth,
and unconsciously or consciously the Southern min-
istry has acted, in the main, upon the pragmatic
method. The survival value, therefore, of the
creeds, or its practical efficiency like the organ of
the animal in the struggle for life, has been the test.
To the Southern evangelistic preacher his doctrinal
system* has been like King Arthur's sword, Ex-
calibur, too trusty to be cast aside for any other.
This conservatism has been fostered further by
the fact that the South has been so largely rural
rather than urban in character. Complex sociologi-
cal conditions have not existed, hence sociological
and kindred studies have not been felt to be so
urgent. Conditions are changing in these regards,
however, and the process of adaptation will be in-
creasingly necessary.
Political causes have also affected theological con-
THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 321
ditions in the South. The comparative isolation of
the South from the political life of the nation since
the war has resulted in various common moulds of
life and thought. Political uniformity has tended to
theological uniformity. By theological uniformity I
mean here fundamental attitudes rather than specific
creeds. At the present stage of man's development
excessive uniformity is nearly always productive of
stagnation. When social or political or religious life
represses initiative and individualism in thought or
action unduly, a great brood of evils invariably
follows. The sentiment of loyalty is always strong
in Southern men and women, and it is a tremendous
factor for good when properly directed. What is
needed in the South as elsewhere in the country is
more adequate ideals in all spheres, ethics, social and
political life and religion. We need to conserve all
the sound elements in our present life and go for-
ward towards our full destiny in the nation's life,
the world's life, and above all in the Kingdom of
God.
That our theological seminaries are awakening to
a sense of their great calling to be factors in the life
of the South is manifest in a number of ways. For
one thing there is an increasing sense of the urgent
necessity of making theological training practical,
of connecting it with human life and human needs.
To this end many additions have been made to the
curricula of a large number of schools. English
Bible courses are now quite general in the theologi-
cal seminaries of the South. The Southern Baptist
Seminary at Louisville led in establishing a chair of
Sunday school pedagogy and method in 1907, and
since then several other schools have undertaken
similar work in one form or another.
The Southwestern Baptist Seminary at Waco,
Vol. 10—21
322 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
Texas, inaugurated a chair of evangelism in 1908
and others will doubtless follow. Comparative re-
ligion and missions is a subject receiving increasing
attention, as is also sociology.
The Lutheran School in South Carolina has
courses of study on missions and the Sunday school.
The Union Presbyterian Seminary at Richmond,
Va., teaches missions and has lectures on the Sun-
day school and on social questions. The Louisville
Presbyterian school has courses on the Sunday
school, evangelism, missions, and was the first
among Presbyterian schools to introduce a course in
the English Bible.
Endowments.
The theological seminaries of the South for the
most part have pitiably small endowments. The
Lutheran School in South Carolina has only $30,000 ;
The Cumberland Presbyterian School in Tennessee,
$90,000; The Christian Bible College at Lexington,
Ky., $150,000. A few schools have endowments
ranging between $250,000 and $500,000. A much lar-
ger number have no endowment whatever. For some
reason philanthropists of North and South alike
have seemed to prefer other schools than those of
theology in bestowing their large gifts. And yet it
is true that no class of men have done so much to
mould the better elements of Southern life and sen-
timent as the men sent out by the theological semi-
naries. Southern people in the churches love their
preachers and are loyal to them. The ministry of
the South would be able to achieve almost anything
if properly trained. Southern civilization, growth
and progress wait upon them perhaps more than
any other one class of men. The writer could name
communities in which the preacher or preachers have
THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION. 323
literally created sentiment for public schools as well
as schools themselves and have thus transformed
those communities. With adequate endowments and
equipments Southern theological schools would gain
tremendously in their influence as social factors in
the highest development of the people.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Broadus, J. A.: Memoir of Jos. P. Boyce (New
York, 1893) ; Moore, W. 8. and Scherer, T. : Centennial General Cata-
logue of Union Theological Seminary (Richmond, Va.) ; Robertson,
A. T. : Life and Letters of John A. Broadus (1901); advance sheets
of article for Methodist Quarterly Review of Nashville, Tenn., on
' ' Methodists and Theological Education ; ' ' Constitution and Plan of
Union Theological Seminary in Virginia (Richmond, Va., 1906) ;
Current annuals or catalogues of the various schools; articles in
denominational encyclopedias on the schools named in the text; Re-
port of United States Commissioner of Education (2 vols., 1907) ;
American College and Private School Directory (New York, 1908) ;
Patterson's College and School Directory of the United States and
Canada (Chicago, 1908) ; Dexter 's History of Education in the United
States (New York, 1904) ; Handbook of Learned Societies and Insti-
tutions of America (Carnegie Institution, Washington, D. C., 1908).
EDGAR YOUNG MULLINS,
President Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky.
CHAPTER XII.
LEGAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTHERN
STATES.
'HE most casual reader of the beginnings of
American history must be struck with the
conspicuous and important part played by
the lawyers among that remarkable group
of constructive statesmen who secured independence
for the united colonies, and framed and launched
the Federal government of the new Republic. James
Otis in Massachusetts, while professionally resisting
324 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
the tyranny of the writs of assistance, and Patrick
Henry in Virginia, while opposing in the court-
room the tyranny of the Established Church, first
gave voice to the country's awakening sentiment of
resistance to oppression. Of the fifty-six signers of
the Declaration of Independence, twenty-five were
lawyers ; while of the fifty-five members of the Con-
stitutional Convention of 1787, thirty were members
of the legal profession. This predominating influ-
ence of those trained in the law is even more strik-
ing among the delegates from the Southern states,
for of the twenty-one signers of the Declaration of
Independence accredited to the South, twelve were
lawyers ; while of the twenty-five Southern members
of the Constitutional Convention, thirteen were law-
yers. But it is not only in the fields of national
activity that we find evidence of the great ability,
sound and broad scholarship, and patriotic achieve-
ments of the Southern lawyers who distinguished
this early period of American history. In the con-
struction of the earliest constitutions and the first
statutes of the Southern states, and the wise and
liberal application of these laws to cases litigated
before the courts, the services of such eminent law-
yers as Wythe, Pendleton, Kandolph, Nicholas,
Davie, Rutledge and Pinckney were invaluable.*
The student of the achievements of these great law-
yers and their scarcely less distinguished contem-
poraries, quickly perceives that these men did not
take merely the narrow professional view of the
duties of the offices assumed by them, but in the
* See Wythe's opinion in Commonwealth v. Caton. 4 Call, 5. This Is
the first reported case declaring the right of the courts to declare arts
of the legislature which violate the constitution to be null and void.
Decided in 1782 it antedated, by more than twenty years the fnmous
opinion of Marshall, C. J.. in Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch, 137. It
seems that in 1780 a similar conclusion had been reached in New Jersey,
in a case not reported. See 1 Thayer's Cases on Constitutional Law, 62,
note. See also The First Hayburn Case (1792) in American Historical
Review, vol. ill!., p. 281.
LEGAL EDUCATION. 325
discharge of their duties, public and professional,
they exhibited a liberality of spirit and breadth of
vision indicative of liberal culture and broad schol-
arship in the general field of law and politics.
We should naturally expect that such lawyers as
these would look upon the law as a science, not
merely as an art or a craft ; and of them we should
also expect a full realization that adequate training
in the law as a science necessarily involved in the
development of good government, was essential to
the public welfare. This expectation we shall see
fully justified in the history of the development of
legal education in the South during the period pre-
ceding the War of Secession.
William and Mary College.
In 1779, a quarter of a century after Blackstone
first began to lecture at Oxford, and before any
American institution had deemed it necessary or
expedient to establish a course of instruction in law,
Thomas Jefferson, as governor of Virginia, reorgan-
ized the faculty of William and Mary College. For
professorships of oriental languages and divinity,
he substituted professorships of modern languages
and of "law and police." At the same time the
professor of moral philosophy, at that time the
eminent Bishop Madison, was required to teach the
"Law of Nations and Nature and the Fine Arts."
To the professorship of law and police was elected
George Wythe, then one of the chancellors of the
state. This choice of a professor for the new chair
was most happy. Mr. Wythe had been the preceptor
of Thomas Jefferson and of John Marshall. It is
scarcely possible accurately to estimate the extent
of the influence of this great lawyer and teacher
during the ten years from 1779 to 1789, in which he
326 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
labored devotedly with the young men who gathered
about him for the study of the law, and who later
scattered to all parts of the commonwealth of Vir-
ginia and into the western regions beyond the Alle-
ghenies, taking with them those sound principles of
law and justice, as well as of liberty and self-gov-
ernment, which they had imbibed at Williamsburg.
That Wythe 's teaching was thorough is apparent
from the following extract from a letter dated Feb.
15, 1780, written from William and Mary College by
John Brown, a young man from Rockbridge county,
Va., who, after the completion of his law studies,
removed to Kentucky and became a leader at the
bar of that rising commonwealth, and ultimately
one of its representatives in the United States
Senate :
"I apply closely to the study of the Law and find it to be a more
difficult science than I expected, though I hope with Mr. Wythe 's
assistance to make some proficiency in it; those who finish this study
in a few months either have strong natural parts, or else they know
little about it."*
It is also interesting to note that Wythe taught
law as a part of the great science of government.
Attractive evidence of this is found in a letter
written by Mr. Jefferson in 1788, advising a friend
to send his son to Williamsburg for the study of law :
"But the pride of the institution is Mr. Wythe, one of the Chan-
cellors of the state, and professor of Law in the College. He is one
of the greatest men of the age, having held without competition, the
first place at the bar of our general court for thirty-five years, and
always distinguished by the most spotless virtue. He gives lectures
regularly, and holds moot court and parliament, wherein he presides,
and the young men debate regularly in law and legislation, learn the
* 9 William and Mary Quarterly, 76. The concluding sentence of this
letter shows that this young student, in the small and poverty stricken
days of 1780, perceived clearly a principle which has In later times been
lost sight of by those law schools In the Southern States which hold out
to the public as adequately trained for the profession of the law younjr
men who have spent only some eight or nine months in the study of that
science which young John Brown found so much more difficult than he
had expected.
LEGAL EDUCATION. 327
rules of parliamentary proceeding, and acquire the habit of public
speaking. ' '*
William and Mary had been most fortunate in the
selection of Wythe as its first professor of law; but
it was not less fortunate, upon Wythe 's resignation
in 1789, in choosing his pupil, St. George Tucker, as
his successor. This able and scholarly man,
born in Bermuda, of an ancient and honorable Eng-
lish family, had come to Williamsburg to be edu-
cated just before the outbreak of the Revolution.
Seized with a consuming love of the principles of
liberty, he cordially espoused the cause of the colo-
nies against the mother country, and served honor-
ably during the Revolutionary War. In 1786 he
had been one of the Virginia commissioners to the
Annapolis Convention, which issued the call for the
Constitutional Convention, and in 1788 he had been
made a member of the General Court of Virginia.
Of the loftiest personal character, of refined and
scholarly tastes, and with a broad vision of the
law, he proved not only an inspiring teacher for the
young men who gathered in his classes at Williams-
burg, but also an influential leader in the develop-
ment of the law and politics of his state.f
Like his great predecessor, St. George Tucker
was strongly opposed to the institution of slavery,
and in 1796 he published, in pamphlet form, an
essay setting forth a proposed plan for the
abolition of slavery. In transmitting a copy of this
essay to the Speaker of the House of Delegates, with
•6 William and Mary Quarterly. 183 : Writings of Jefferson (Randolph),
Vol. I, p. 346. It is worth notice in passing that Wythe's devoted labors
in the cause of legal education at William and Mary were due rather to
his love of the law as a science, and of his country, which he hoped to
see well-governed, than to a desire to increase his Income, for we are
told that his annual stipend from William and Mary College was eight
hogsheads of tobacco. 9 William and Mary Quarterly, 22.
t Interesting sketches of the lives of Judge St. George Tucker and of
his son, Henry St. George Tucker, by the latter's son, John Randolph
Tucker, may be found in 1 Virginia Law Register, 789.
328 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
the request that his proposal be laid before the
legislature, Tucker uses these words that are well
worthy of commemoration :
"My fervent wish is that under their auspices the day may arrive
when the blessing of freedom will be inseparable from life in this
Commonwealth. ' '
As evidence of his activity as professor of law at
William and Mary, we have the five volumes pub-
lished in 1803 under the title of Tucker's Blackstone.
This earliest American treatise on law consisted of
extensive notes to the text of Blackstone, which
made up a luminous commentary upon the statutes
and decisions of Virginia, and most especially, as
an appendix to the first book, an extensive discus-
sion of the text of the Federal constitution, and of
the general principles of law that should apply in
its construction. This first work dealing with the
Federal constitution displays vividly the keen intel-
lect and the broad grasp of the fundamental princi-
ples of constitutional law possessed by this early
Virginia teacher. Judge Tucker resigned his pro-
fessorship in 1804, having rounded out the first full
quarter century of the existence of the department
of law at William and Mary. Probably no other law
school that has ever been inaugurated in this coun-
try has been so fortunate in having two such tran-
scendently able men as successive professors during
the first quarter century of its existence. Under
Wythe and Tucker the law school at William and
Mary reached the zenith of its efficiency and fame.
This was a veritable seed time for these great teach-
ers of legal and political principle. The harvest we
see ripening bounteously during the next half cen-
tury, throughout all of the Southern states, in the
remarkable series of great lawyers and statesmen,
who not only adorned their local bars and shaped
LEGAL EDUCATION. 329
the course of state governments, but even dominated
the councils of the Federal government itself.
After Judge Tucker's resignation many able men
filled the chair of law at William and Mary, but the
glory of William and Mary was fast waning. Thomas
Jefferson's powerful influence was withdrawn from
it and turned to the development of the institution
which was ultimately founded at Charlottesville, and
called the University of Virginia. Even before the
war, the Virginia law students had almost wholly
forsaken the ancient seat of learning at Williams-
burg for the newer institution at Charlottesville, and
since the war no effort has been made to revive the
law school which had done so much for legal educa-
tion in the Southern states in fixing high standards
of professional attainment and lofty ideals of
political principle.
Transylvania University.
In the autumn of 1798 there occurred in the little
frontier village of Lexington, Ky., a meeting which
deserves to receive from a grateful posterity a nota-
ble place in the history of education in the Southern
states, and indeed in the United States.* The com-
monwealth of Virginia had granted to certain
trustees large tracts of land in Kentucky for the
establishment and endowment of a seminary of
learning west of the Alleghenies. The land was
almost without value and unsalable, and six years
after Kentucky had become a state, the fifteen
trustees, who had been appointed by the Kentucky
legislature to carry out this educational trust, were
unable to raise sufficient money even for the erection
of the small wooden structure that was thought nec-
* The only accessible source of information as to Transylvania Uni-
versity is the History of Transylvania University, by Robert Peter, M. D.,
published by The Filson Club, of Louisville, Ky., to which the reader Is
referred generally.
330 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
essary for housing the proposed seminary. But,
in spite of the absence of money, and in spite of the
fact that the new state was still thinly settled, with
most inadequate means of communication, which
was even yet endangered by roving bands of Indians,
these fifteen pioneer Kentuckians, evidently familiar
with the work then done at William and Mary in
Virginia, laid broad plans for the establishment of
the new seminary, that was to be called Transyl-
vania University, which would have done credit to
men who had the light that came with the experience
of the next half century. Not only did they provide
for the teaching of the humanities, as then carried
on at Harvard, Yale and Princeton, but, in the inter-
est of the public welfare and of good government,
they established departments of history, medicine,
and law and politics. The reader will not appreciate
the significance of this statement unless he bears in
mind the fact that at this time, in the relatively popu-
lous and wealthy eastern states, practically nothing
was being done in the leading institutions of learn-
ing in providing for scientific instruction in law.*
In fact, at the time these far-seeing Kentucky
pioneers determined that instruction in law should
be carried on in a regular department of the uni-
* A chair in political science, including natural law, had been estab-
lished at King's College, now Columbia University, in 1773, but had met
with no success, and had been abandoned after three years. It was not.
until 1793 that a chair of municipal law was established at Columbia,
with the great commentator, James Kent, as professor. This professor-
ship, however, proved unsuccessful, and was abandoned with the retire-
ment of Kent three years later, to be revived in 1823 by Kent upon his
withdrawal from his judicial office in the state of New York. Kent
delivered lectures with more or less regularity, but with very little
popularity, until 1847. when the law school at Columbia was again
abandoned. It was only in 1858 that the Law Department of Columbia
University was finally put upon a substantial and permanent basis. See
4 William and Mary Quarterly, 265.
The law school at Harvard University was not established until 1815.
Even then it met with little success until the Dane endowment, given in
1829, and the election of Justice Story to the Dane Professorship first
made the law school popular and successful. Yale University offered no
instruction in law until 1824, although the famous Litchfielrl Law School,
founded by Judge Reeve in 1782, was in successful operation from that
date until its suspension in 1833. See 6 Michigan Law Review, 647.
LEGAL EDUCATION. 331
versity, and in accordance with university methods,
William and Mary College in Virginia was the only
one in the United States that had come to an appre-
ciation of the necessity of making such a provision
for legal education. Those were the days of small
beginnings in Kentucky, but of large ideas, large
ambitions, and large men. George Nicholas, him-
self a graduate of William and Mary, and one of
the leading lawyers of the commonwealth, was
appointed professor of law and politics, and on
April 20, 1799, the advertisement announcing the
beginning of instruction in the new university,
informed the public that a professor of law and
politics and a law library had been provided. Unhap-
pily, Professor Nicholas died shortly afterwards,
and was succeeded by James Brown, also a graduate
of William and Mary. The records of the old uni-
versity show that on Oct. 10, 1805, Henry Clay was
elected professor of law, but shortly afterwards
resigned to take a seat in the United States Senate.
These Kentucky pioneers, like most of their Scotch-
Irish contemporaries, had not the New Englander's
skill in making records, nor did any of them think
it worth while to write down the history that they
were then making. Accordingly, we are not sur-
prised to find that the records of the early days of
Transylvania University are exceedingly fragmen-
tary. We have no means of determining how long a
period was required for the course in law, nor do we
know, with any degree of accuracy, what was the
average attendance in the earlier years. We have,
however, a record of the names of nine law students
who were graduated in 1814.
Beginning with the administration of President
Holley in 1817 the whole university became very suc-
cessful and prosperous, the total attendance in some
332 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
years reaching 350 students, drawn from all parts
of the South. It is probable that the number of
law students increased proportionately. In the rec-
ord of a funeral procession of 1823 the law class is
mentioned as one of the constituent bodies. From
the years 1842 to 1848 there is an accurate record of
attendance, showing that the average number of
law students during those years was more than
sixty. It is, therefore, probable that, during the
quarter century between 1820 and 1845, the law
school at Transylvania University was conducted
upon broader lines, by abler teachers, and gave
instruction to larger numbers of young men, than
any other in the United States, excepting, possibly
Harvard. The remarkable success of this remote
law school during its flourishing period may be
attributed partly to the great ability and sound legal
culture of its professors, among whom, in addition
to those already mentioned, we may record the
names of Joseph Cabell Breckenridge, George Kob-
ertson, and Thomas A. Marshall, all men of unusual
talents and attainments in the law; but chiefly it
was due to the noble and lofty spirit that animated
those who had charge of its administration. The
ambition of these pioneer educators for the institu-
tion which they had established beyond the moun-
tains, is well expressed in this extract from a letter
written in 1817 by President Holley:
"This whole western country is to feed my seminary, which will
send out lawyers, physicians, clergymen, statesmen, poets, oratois
and savants who will make the nation feel them."
How nobly the institution, during its too brief
career of usefulness, fulfilled the hopes of Dr. Holley
becomes apparent as one notes in its register of
students the names of two judges of the Supreme
Court of the United States, a half dozen judges of
LEGAL EDUCATION". 333
the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, and other judges
of the highest courts in other states, besides many
members of the United States Senate and House of
Eepresentatives, who have served well their country.
Unfortunately, Transylvania's glory was short-
lived. Although established as a state institution,
it soon became the bone of contention between rival
religious denominations. As each succeeded in
obtaining control of the institution, it brought upon
it the implacable hostility of all of the others, and
then each in turn, when expelled from control,
became an inveterate opponent, setting up rival
institutions, which ultimately brought to destruction
an institution which, in the wisdom of its founda-
tion, the heroism of its inauguration, and the excel-
lence of its early accomplishment bade fair to become
one of the chiefest ornaments of higher education in
the United States. In 1850 the number of law stu-
dents had been reduced to thirty-five, and with the
outbreak of the war the doors of Transylvania Uni-
versity were closed, never to be opened again,
excepting as a sort of annex to the denominational
college which subsequently arose under the name of
Kentucky University.
The University of Virginia.
The next Southern institution, in order of time, to
make provision for giving scientific instruction in
law, and the one in which such instruction has been
carried on with the most uniform success, is the Uni-
versity of Virginia.* As early as 1814, in a letter
addressed to Peter Carr, Thomas Jefferson, in out-
lining a plan for the university which he was then
* The statements mada here concerning the University of Virginia are
based upon a recently published book by J. S. Patton, entitled Jefferson,
Cabell and The University of Virginia, and Thomas Jefferson and The
University of Virginia, by Herbert B. Adams (United States Bureau of
Education, 1888).
334 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
proposing, includes as an essential department a
professional school of law. Of this necessity Jeffer-
son never lost sight. The report of the commission
appointed by the Virginia legislature in 1818, for
the purpose of recommending a general plan of
public education, and for a State University, was
written by Jefferson, and signed on Aug. 3, 1819.
Among the subjects of instruction recommended in
this report to be provided for in the university, are
the following: ' i Government ; Political Economy;
Law of Nature and Nations; History, being inter-
woven with Politics and Law; Law, Municipal."
After the long struggle, which was necessary
before Jefferson succeeded in securing the establish-
ment of the State University near his home at Char-
lottesville, and after sufficient of the buildings had
been made ready to justify the opening of the uni-
versity, Jefferson and his board of visitors set
themselves busily about securing a professor for the
newly established department of law. The profes-
sorship was first offered to F. W. Gilmer, a brilliant,
but exceedingly erratic, young scholar who had quite
captured Jefferson's fancy; but Gilmer declined, as
did Judge Henry St. George Tucker. The board of
visitors then elected William Wirt, at that time
attorney-general of the United States, as professor
of law and president of the University, the latter
office having been offered to Mr. Wirt over the vehe-
ment protest of Jefferson. Mr. Wirt also declined.
It was at this time that Mr. Jefferson is reported to
have said in despair, that he feared the university
might be compelled to accept as professor of law
"a Richmond lawyer or some other Federalist."
In this exclamation of Jefferson we perceive the
real difficulty of the situation. The great apostle
of republicanism was keenly opposed to any sort of
LEGAL EDUCATION. 335
restrictions that might be imposed upon teaching
any science excepting that of government. He
wished perfect freedom to be exercised in teaching
philosophy and religion, but he was much concerned
lest any political philosophy other than orthodox
republicanism might be instilled in the generous
minds of the growing youth of the commonwealth.
To be sure that no political heresies should be taught
in his state institution, he let it be known that he
and Mr. Madison proposed to prescribe the texts
which should be used in giving instruction in political
science and law.*
At Wirt's suggestion Jefferson succeeded in pro-
tecting the young Virginians who were to study
law at the university from Federalist heresy, by
appointing, as first professor of law, John Taylor
Lomax, a very excellent lawyer of Charlottesville,
who does not seem, however, to have been a man of
any genius or broad scientific sympathy, and in gen-
eral scientific attainment was probably not the equal
of the young Oxford and Cambridge dons whom
Jefferson had imported as first incumbents of other
chairs in the university. Professor Lomax, how-
ever, published two very excellent works : one on the
Law of Real Property, and another on the Law of
Executors and Administrators, which remained
standard treatises on those subjects in Virginia for
many years. Professor Lomax died in 1830, and
was succeeded by John A. G. Davis, another local
lawyer, who was sole professor until his death in
1841. Professor Davis was in turn succeeded by
Judge Henry St. George Tucker, who resigned his
position as president of the Virginia Court of
Appeals to become professor of law at the Univer-
sity of Virginia, which fact shows the importance
* See Adams' Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia, p. 138 ;
Pattern's University of Virginia, p. 109.
336 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
which, the department had assumed in the common-
wealth. It was Judge Tucker who, in 1842, for-
mally introduced at the University of Virginia the
honor system of student government, which had
been foreshadowed at William and Mary, but which,
at the University of Virginia, has reached a degree
of efficiency and success which is causing its gradual
extension, not only to the other institutions in the
South, but to those in the North as well. In 1845
Judge Tucker resigned on account of ill-health, and
was succeeded by John B. Minor, who then began
that long career as professor of law which brought
the University of Virginia Law School into the very
front rank of American institutions for legal edu-
cation. The attendance was rapidly increased,
until, in the last session before the outbreak of the
war, the number of young men engaged in the study
of law at the University of Virginia was 135, a num-
ber exceeded only at the Harvard and Cumberland
University law schools. During the score or more
years after the establishment of the school of law
in the University of Virginia the course seems to
have been rather brief and meagre, but with the
increasing prosperity that became noticeable after
1850, there appeared a disposition to enlarge and
broaden the course of instruction.
The Cumberland University Law School.
The next important seat of legal education to be
established in the Southern states was the law
department of Cumberland University, at Lebanon.
Tenn., which was first instituted in 1847.* The
rapid rise of this school in reputation and popu-
larity was due, as in the case of nearly all successful
* As authorities for the statements In this section, see generally
History of Cumberland University Law School, by Nathan Green, Jr., and
Higher Education in Tennessee, by L. S. Merrlam (U. S. Bureau of
Education).
LEGAL EDUCATION. 337
law schools, to the great ability and high character
of the first professors. The trustees of the univer-
sity were fortunate enough to induce Judge Abra-
ham Caruthers to resign his seat upon the bench of
one of the Tennessee circuits, in order to accept the
appointment as first professor of law in the newly
established school. Judge Caruthers seems to have
been endowed by nature with rare gifts as a teacher.
He at once eschewed the written lecture, which was
the bane of law teaching in that day, and devoted
his time to searching examinations of his students
upon the text of standard treatises, and to severe
and constant training in moot court practice. His
own valuable work, now rarely seen, The History of
a Suit in Equity, shows the accuracy of his mental
processes and his great powers of lucid expression.
Judge Caruthers' sound and effective teaching,
together with the opportunity of intimate associa-
tion with a lawyer of such high character and great
attainments, brought about an unexampled yearly
increase in the number of students that flocked to
the law school at Lebanon. Beginning with thirteen
students in 1847, there were eighty-six in 1852, at
which time Judge Nathan Green was induced to
leave the supreme court of the state to join Judge
Caruthers in his work of legal instruction. Shortly
afterwards, Judge B. L. Eidley and Nathan Green,
Jr., were added to the faculty. In 1858, it is certain
that the Lebanon Law School, with its 188 students,
was the largest in the United States, and there is
little reason to doubt that at that time, in this little
Tennessee village, remote from centres of wealth
and population, was being given the most scientific
and effective legal instruction to be had in the entire
country. From the establishment of this school
until 1853, two years of seven months each were
Vol. 10—22
338 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
required for the completion of the course. After
1853, and until the closing of the school on account
of the war, the course covered fifteen months.
Young men came to Lebanon from almost every
state in the South, and among its large number of
ante-bellum graduates there are many who, on the
bench, and in legislative and executive positions,
have testified to the honor which should be paid to
the gifted and devoted company of professors who
taught the science of the law in Cumberland Uni-
versity before the war.
Public Law at South Carolina College.
Between the dates of the founding of the law
school at the University of Virginia and the out-
break of the war, other law schools were established
in the Southern states. Judge Henry St. George
Tucker, while chancellor of one of the Virginia dis-
tricts, established at Winchester, Va., a private law
school, which continued with much success from
1824 to 1831, when it was abandoned because of
Judge Tucker's election as president of the Virginia
Court of Appeals. During several years the number
of students studying under Judge Tucker reached
almost half a hundred. It was while he was con-
ducting this law school that Judge Tucker published,
principally for the use of his classes, his Notes Upon
Blackstone, which constituted a rather more exten-
sive treatise upon Virginia law than that contained
in the Commentaries of his father, St. George
Tucker. In 1849 Judge John W. Brockenbrough
established a somewhat similar private law school at
Lexington, Va., which was maintained with very
considerable success until the beginning of the war,
and was subsequently, in 1867, incorporated as a
department of Washington College, which subse-
LEGAL EDUCATION. 339
quently became Washington and Lee University.
Other law schools were established at Louisville,
Ky., in 1846; at the University of North Carolina
in 1846; at Tulane University in 1847; at the Uni-
versity of Mississippi in 1854 ; and at the University
of Georgia in 1859. None of these law schools seem,
however, to have been organized upon any very
broad basis, or to have exercised any very notable
influence upon the profession of the law or the
political development of their respective states.
At South Carolina College no professional school
of law seems to have been established before the
war, but in 1819 there came to the presidency of that
institution a remarkable, if somewhat eccentric,
genius, in the person of Dr. Thomas Cooper. Dur-
ing his term of service, which extended to 1834, he
devoted much time to giving instruction in Roman
law, public law and political science. He published
a translation of the Institutes of Justinian, and also
a work on medical jurisprudence. It is very clear
that the bent of his active and powerful mind was
almost entirely along the lines of public law, for
when requested by his board of visitors to teach
moral philosophy and metaphysics, he refused to do
so, on the ground that such studies were a waste of
time. His views on constitutional law appear to
have magnified the peculiar rights of the states, and
it is probable that to his earnest and stimulating
teaching is to be attributed, in no small measure,
the rather remarkable part which South Carolinians
took in contesting the power of the Federal govern-
ment to coerce a state, and ultimately in precipitat-
ing the conflict consequent upon the secession move-
ment. Dr. Cooper was succeeded in the same field
of instruction by an even more remarkably gifted
man, Francis Lieber. This famous scholar and pub-
340 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
licist was elected professor of history and political
economy in 1835. While it does not seem that he
ever found the political atmosphere of South Caro-
lina wholly congenial, especially in view of his well-
known opposition to the "peculiar institution" of
slavery, he nevertheless continued to labor with
great enthusiasm and efficiency in the class rooms
of South Carolina College until 1856, when he
resigned, shortly afterwards to become a professor
in Columbia College, New York. During this period
his activities are evidenced not merely by the great
interest that was awakened by him among the stu-
dents of the college in political science and public
law, but also by the publication of the three treatises
which have immortalized his name among scholars :
A Manual of Political Ethics (1838), Legal and
Political Hermeneutics (1839), and Civil Liberty
and Self -Government (1853).*
Developments After the War of Secession.
As has been stated, the outbreak of the war caused
the suspension of all the law schools in the South
with the exception of that at the University of Vir-
ginia, which continued its sessions with insignificant
attendance. With the return of peace, or within a
few years thereafter, all of these schools, excepting
those at Transylvania University and William and
Mary College, resumed their sessions, but with
changed character. The extreme prostration of all
interests in the Southern states consequent upon the
four years of disastrous conflict, was peculiarly felt
in educational institutions of every grade and char-
acter. People who had little to spend for the barest
necessaries of life, had nothing to invest in educa-
tion. The broad plans, the lofty ambitions, and
* See History of Higher Education in South Carolina, by Colyer Merl-
wether (U. S. Bureau o£ Education, 1889), pp. 143, 153, et passim.
LEGAL EDUCATION. 341
liberal educational views that had been so marked
before the war, and had so remarkably qualified
the public men of the South for political leadership,
disappeared before the gaunt spectres of poverty
and despair. When the law schools reopened their
doors, the institutions with which they were con-
nected were without income from endowment funds
or other sources. The young men whose tastes and
ambitions led them into the law were without funds
necessary to sustain the expense of even a brief
course of study. Hence, most of them were forced to
rely upon the slender instruction to be had in law-
yers' offices, and there were few who applied for
admission to the law schools. Furthermore, during
the chaotic period of the war, the entire educational
system of the Southern states was disorganized, and
educational qualification for professional life was
impossible. Hence the few young men who were in
a position to seek instruction in the law schools dur-
ing the first decade after the close of the war, were
sadly lacking in any adequate preparation for their
professional studies. It was inevitable that stand-
ards of admission, standards of scholarship, and
even educational ideals, should fall to a low level.
All of the Southern schools dispensed with any sort
of requirements for admission, and all of them pro-
fessed adequately to instruct young men in the diffi-
cult science of the law, and to equip them for the
responsible duties of a counselor within the short
space of one session. As a single illustration we
may cite the case of the law school of Cumberland
University, the ante-bellum career of which had
been so honorable. In 1866 it was heroically
reopened, but despite the devoted labors of able
professors, it was unable to maintain its former
standards, and in 1871 its course of study was
342 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
reduced to the brief period of one session of nine
months, and above this low level it has never since
been able to rise. The University of Virginia Law
School, on account of the great fame of that institu-
tion, and the wide reputation of its gifted professor
of law, John B. Minor, was more fortunate in
attracting a larger number of students, who, during
the first ten years after the war, averaged quite one
hundred in number. But even such relative pros-
perity did not seem to justify the law school in
requiring of its graduates in law a longer period of
study than one session, until 1894. At Washington
and Lee University the date of requiring more than
one session's study for graduates in law was even
later.
With returning prosperity new law schools were
established.* During the last decade, especially, the
increase of wealth in the South has resulted in a
more adequate support for its principal institutions
of learning, and there is to be noted, during this
period, a decided awakening among these institu-
tions to the necessity of elevating the standards, and
increasing the efficiency of the law schools connected
with them. In this forward movement the North
Carolina institutions have borne an honorable part.
The University of North Carolina department of
* University of Alabama. 1873 : Vanderbilt University, 1875 ; Univer-
sity of West Virginia, 1878 ; University of Texas, 1883 : University of
South Carolina, 1883 ; University of Tennessee, 1890 ; Richmond College,
1870 : University of the South, 1892 ; Mercer University, 1875 ; Uni-
versity of Arkansas, 1889 ; Wake Forest College, 1895 ; Central University,
Kentucky, 1894 ; Millsaps College, 1896 ; Stetson University, Florida,
1900 ; Trinity College, North Carolina, 1904 ; State University of Lou-
isiana, 1906. The Jefferson School of Law was established in Louisville
in 1905, and in the same year the old Transylvania Law School was
reestablished as a department of the Kentucky University. Divers other
law schools of a more or less ephemeral character have been established at
various times and places, but they have no historical significance, other
than as indicating the disposition needlessly to increase the number of
law schools, rather than to elevate the standards and efficiency of those
already existing. It is worthy of note that in 1888 there was established
at Raleigh, N. C., as a department of Shaw University, a law school
exclusively for the instruction of colored men. This school seems to
have been maintained continuously, but with a very small attendance.
See Report of Commissioner of Education, 1906-07.
LEGAL EDUCATION. 343
law has, since 1887, required two years of college
work of its graduates in law. Trinity College insti-
tuted a law course of three years in 1904, and Wake
Forest College in 1905. The University of Texas
extended its course from two to three years in 1906,
and with the session of 1908-09 has begun to require
one year of college work as a requirement of admis-
sion to its law school. The University of Virginia,
Tulane University, and Vanderbilt University will
require a course of three years for graduation after
the session of 1909-10. These changes clearly indi-
cate the strongly progressive tendency among the
best Southern law schools to advance their require-
ments both for admission and for graduation to the
standard that has been set by the more fortunate
institutions in the wealthier Northern states.
In conclusion, the reader will note that during the
period extending from the establishment of the
American Union to the outbreak of the War of
Secession, legal education, as provided for the
young men of the Southern states, was more exten-
sive, more thorough, and more liberal than that
offered in any other part of the United States ; that
this was due partly to the fact that in the Southern
states the early leaders were lawyers of great ability
and sound training; and that, in turn, the excellent
educational facilities provided for training the
young men of the South to a proper conception of
the function of a lawyer and for public service, had
not a little to do with continuing that political lead-
ership in the councils of the nation, for which the
Southern states were so remarkable during this
period. The destructive effects of the war were
felt most disastrously by Southern educational insti-
tutions, and the young men growing up in the South
since the war who desired adequate and liberal
344 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
training in the science of government and law could
secure it only in the great institutions in the North-
ern states. Thus the prostrate South, deprived of
its one-time civilization, and financially bankrupt,
was further shorn of the very source of its former
power, the right training of the young men who
were to be its leaders in public thought and public
action. Hence, no one can be surprised that this
powerful influence, operating with others, has
caused its former political glory to depart from the
South, and brought upon it a long period of eclipse,
from which it is fortunately now emerging. The
rapid improvements recently made in facilities for
education in law and politics throughout the South
justify the belief that the time will soon come when
it will be within the power of every young man in
the South who has the requisite ambition and per-
severance necessary for leadership to secure as
broad and effective training in law and politics as
can be acquired by his heretofore more fortunate
Northern brethren, and that there will gradually
rise up from the bar leaders qualified once more to
restore the South to a position of influence in the
councils of the nation.
WILLIAM EEYNOLDS VANCE,
Dean of the Faculty of Law, George Washington University.
TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 345
CHAPTER XIII.
TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH.
The Economic Growth of the South.
VEN a casual observer must have observed
great changes in Southern conditions and
ideas during the last twenty-five years. He
must have seen the increase in values of
rural and urban properties; he must have seen a
growth in population, commerce, agricultural prod-
ucts, manufacturing establishments, and clearing-
house receipts ; he must have felt at every turn the
presence of that activity and well-being which we
denominate progress ; but the full importance of this
"progress" appears only when its record is tabu-
lated by the statistician. Prom this source we have
given us statistics of increase in population; of
increased railroad mileage ; of increased production
of pig iron, coal, coke, oil, lumber products, cotton
mills and spindles and agricultural products, which
are amazing. We are told that the South to-day is
possessed of a population, a prosperity and an agri-
cultural and commercial activity as great as the
totals of all other parts of the country in 1880, and
that, with the exception of manufactured products
and the value of assessed property, is ahead of the
combined North, East, and West of twenty-five
years ago.
As interesting as these facts are to the historian,
however, they are less interesting to the man of
affairs than what is revealed regarding the potential
future of the South.
In the South is raised three-fourths of the world's
cotton crop, for which, in its raw state, Europe pays
346 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
annually nearly $400,000,000, or more than the
world's yearly gold production. In its more than
777 cotton mills, with their more than 9,000,000
spindles, it has nearly a quarter of a billion dollars
invested ; but it furnishes the raw material for three-
fourths of the world's cotton mills with their 100,-
000,000 spindles and invested capital of $2,000,000,-
000. In other words, the South raises more than 75
per cent of the world's cotton supply — and there
seems to be conclusive proof that no other part of
the globe can successfully produce this staple as a
competitor ; yet it manufactures less than 10 per cent
of the world's cotton goods. The room for expan-
sion in cotton manufacturing, therefore, is limited
only by the South 's ability to provide skilled work-
men and capital for new mills.
In the iron and coal industries, the South 's pos-
sible mastery is not less emphatic. It is estimated
that, at the present rate of consumption, the vast
iron supplies of the Lake Superior region will be
exhausted in about twenty-five years, and, so far
as is known, the only source of the metal equal
to the needs of the coming years is to be found in
the South. Of iron ore Alabama alone has such an
enormous store that it is now accepted that the three
or four leading companies of this state control more
iron than the United States Steel Corporation, with
its 700,000,000 tons. Moreover, the South contains
a total of 63,000 square miles of rich bituminous
coal lands, more than four times as much as Penn-
sylvania and more than five times as much as
England and Germany combined.
Still, the value of the South 's resources in cotton,
iron and coal scarcely exceeds that of others less
generally regarded. To mention only three: (1)
One-half of the standing timber of the United States
TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 347
is below Mason and Dixon's line ; (2) a magnificent
water-power, capable of being utilized for electrical
purposes, promises to make this section the centre of
activity in that respect in America; and (3) the
South, except in limited and more densely populated
regions traversed by a few well equipped trunk lines,
is notably deficient in railroad facilities.
This is surely as glowing a picture as one could
wish; yet this presents only one-half of the picture.
If one seeks for the ownership of the steam and elec-
tric railroad bonds, of the enormous water powers,
of the coal mines and iron works, of the timber
lauds, of many of the large cotton and steel mills, the
answer often is, "Eastern capital." The resources
of the South are passing into the control of the alien
capitalist. This condition of affairs has been inevi-
table because of the poverty of the Southern people,
and has been encouraged because the coming of
outside capital has meant increased property values,
more accessible markets, increased business, and
more remunerative employment. Still, the fact
remains that the major profits of Southern resources
are devolving into the hands of the men of the North
and East.
Technical Training Needed for Young Men of the South.
Certain definite truths follow from the above sta-
tistics: First, it is evident that this region of
immeasurable resources is going to be developed,
and developed by Southerners or by outsiders;
second, the North and East are fitting their young
men to do this work ; third, if the young men of the
South are to compete successfully with these trained
engineers, they must be equipped likewise. The
conclusion is an inevitable one. It is denied that our
young men shall possess the output of these prop-
348 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
erties as owners ; but it is possible for them — and it
is the duty of the South to provide that this be pos-
sible — to receive their share of the rewards, as
skilled engineers, as foremen and as managers. If
our young men are not prepared for this work, the
South is destined to suffer a loss, compared with
which the material losses of war and reconstruction
will be insignificant. Engineering is the one field
where brains and skill are the only capital neces-
sary, and where the possibilities of accomplishment
and reward are almost limitless.
What Technical Education Is.
These truths appear sufficiently obvious to force
one to the conclusion that the solution of the South 's
economic and industrial problem lies in technical
education. And what, then, is technical education!
Education has been defined as "an adjustment of
the individual to his environment." Technical edu-
cation is an adjustment of the individual to his
environment by fitting him to deal adequately with
specific industrial conditions. At the outset, it must
be recognized that this has almost nothing in
common with manual training. The latter aims
merely to make the student familiar with tools and
to give him a certain dexterity in handling them.
Such training has a real educative value and such
skill is a desirable accomplishment; but it is not
"technical." The practical need in the industries
for such trained hands is rapidly disappearing,
except in the artistic crafts and in the minor
branches of the constructive trades. On the other
hand, the operations of the workshop and factory
have become continually more complicated and
exact; they demand the supervision of men who
understand them, who know how to conduct them
TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 349
safely and economically. Theoretical and practical
training are both required, and are complementary ;
and it is the men who have received both forms of
training who are needed in industry.
Again, technical education must be distinguished
from something with which, by a popular miscon-
ception, it is even more often confused; namely,
industrial training, such as given in the Trade
Schools. Industrial training is that training given
to the carpenter, the machinist, the electrician, and
others, who are then classed as skilled labor; it
merely means that a man is trained to do one thing
intelligently and well — as a tradesman. With
extensive practical experience is combined such
theoretical knowledge as will render the processes
and operations he controls intelligible to him, and
as will enable him to follow and apply current
invention and discovery so far as it concerns his
own branch of the trade.
The engineer stands in an essentially different
relation to his work. He is the connecting link
between the scientist and the skilled workman. He
gives the theory and discovery of the scientist a
practical and materially useful application, and
passes it on to the trained mechanic to receive a
definite and concrete embodiment. He is the
constructor of ideas and not the builder of
machines; he designs and superintends, while the
mechanic forges the bar and rivets the plate. Neces-
sarily he knows personally the use of the tool, but
mainly that he may direct and superintend the
other's handling of it. As much as the physician or
the lawyer, the engineer is a professional man.
With his practical experience must be coupled a
deep scientific knowledge and a wide outlook upon
human affairs; for success in this work a liberal
350 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
education is indispensable. Industrial training
strives to teach a man how to make a living; but
technical education, like all other forms of educa-
tion, strives to teach a man how to live. It seeks
to make of him a contributor not only to the mate-
rial welfare of his country, but to its political, social,
and moral well-being.
Here, then, we have a clear statement of the
South 's problem resolved into the elements of its
nature, its importance, and its possible solution. We
look to see what the South has done and is doing to
effect this solution.
Conditions and Needs.
General statistics in this connection do little more
than emphasize the need which has been presented
above. In 1901 there were in Southern colleges
1,605 engineering students. Assuming that there
would graduate of these 60 per cent., — an assumed
percentage far too large, — there would be sent out
from this number 963 graduates, or 241 annually.
In 1900 there were in the Southern states 14,707
civil, mechanical, electrical and mining engineers.
Now, accepting the actuaries' reports, that at least
4 per cent, of every profession will disappear annu-
ally, there will be from this body an annual loss of
590 engineers. So that the engineering schools of
the South were at that time not supplying one-half
of even the annual loss of this profession.
This surely is bad enough, but when one considers
the industrial growth of the South, matters appear
far worse. The increase in the industrial output
of the South during the last twenty-five years has
been 561 per cent., or 22 per cent, annually. In
order to supply this demand on the engineering pro-
fession, there should be added each year 3,235 engi-
TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 351
neers, a number which, by providing for the annual
loss indicated above, becomes 3,825. This is sixteen
times the output of our engineering colleges. In
other words, for every engineer educated in the
South, fifteen are brought from the outside. Again,
in 1905 there were established in the South 6,000
new industrial enterprises. If the Southern tech-
nical colleges graduated the average number of stu-
dents,— -namely, 241, — there was sent out fewer than
one man for every twenty-four of the new estab-
lishments.
These are impressive statements, and become
more impressive in the light of additional truths.
It is conceded that Southern boys are intelligent,
willing and capable. The president of a leading
Southern technical school testifies from his long
experience that * ' four out of five can be trained to do
skillful work in some direction. ' ' They merely lack
opportunity, and this opportunity our present sys-
tem of education fails to give them. In each of the
Southern states there are from half-a-dozen to a
score of colleges for literary culture, and a single
institution for technical training. It is not hard,
then, to understand the conclusion of this same
president, that "Our entire system of education
rests on a false basis," and that "The basis of all
education should be industrial ' ' ; and though we
may admit the too radical nature of this conclusion,
we must perceive the great truth which lies behind it.
As we have many times been reminded, however,
all truth is relative. It is only the side of the canvas
which presents the large need of technical education
in the South that is dun colored. That side which
records the growth of technical education in the
South is as remarkable as any other phase of South-
ern development; and this is saying a great deal.
352 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
History of Technical Education in the South.
The history of Southern technical education begins
with the so-called Morrill Act, which was approved
by the United States Congress July 2, 1862. This
act donated to the several states lands "for the
endowment, support and maintenance of at least
one college where the leading object shall be to
teach such branches of learning as are related to
agriculture and the mechanic arts. ' ' As the- ' ' recon-
struction" of the Southern states was accomplished,
gradually they accepted this donation, applying the
funds thus derived in several ways. Some of the
states used them to rehabilitate their old state uni-
versities, complying with the provisions of the Mor-
rill Act in so far that they added to their curriculum
a department of agriculture which long held a very
insignificant position in the college work; other
states met more nearly the spirit of the act and
established separate institutions for the teaching
of these practical branches of learning.
• The first states to establish these colleges of
applied science were Virginia and Alabama, both of
which opened combined agricultural and technical
schools in 1872, although the latter remained of
little importance until Dr. William LeEoy Broun
became president of the college in 1887. Texas
established its Agricultural and Mechanical College
in 1876; Louisiana in 1877; Mississippi in 1880:
Georgia in 1888 ; North Carolina in 1889, and South
Carolina in 1893. The University of Tennessee and
Tulane also have excellent technological depart-
ments. Florida and Arkansas are the only Southern
states which have no distinctive colleges of this
type. Besides these schools definitely technical,
there are several colleges having well developed
TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 353
departments devoted to phases of applied science,
which are doing excellent work. Prominent among
these last is Vanderbilt University. The technical
schools named above are generally associated with
the state agricultural school ; in fact, the only South-
ern school devoted exclusively to technological work
is the Georgia School of Technology.
The story of this whole movement is best found
in the lives of the men who were interested in its
growth — who were the cause of its growth. No
record of Southern technical education would be
complete which failed to mention the names of Dr.
William LeRoy Broun, Dr. Brown Ayers, Dr. Lyman
Hall, and Dr. Charles William Dabney. During Dr.
Broun 's long and brilliant educational career of
half a century he taught in many Southern colleges,
stamping his personality especially upon Vanderbilt
and the University of Texas. His greatest work,
however, was done at the Alabama Polytechnic Insti-
tute, of which he was president from 1882 till his
death in 1902, and for which he won much of the
prominence and esteem that the institution now so
deservedly enjoys. The most distinguished work of
Dr. Ayers was in moulding — one is tempted to say
in creating — the Tulane University at New Orleans.
As president of the University of Tennessee he con-
tinues his large service to Southern technical edu-
cation. Dr. Dabney, now president of the Univer-
sity of Cincinnati, did even a greater service to
North Carolina ; he is literally the originator of the
North Carolina A. and M. College, a work which
he accomplished with small support and much oppo-
sition. He was then, before assuming the presidency
of the University of Cincinnati, for seventeen years,
president of the University of Tennessee, where he
Vol. 10—23
354 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
devoted himself especially to upbuilding the tech-
nical department of the university, giving it the
prestige it now possesses. Dr. Hall's life work was
centred in the Georgia School of Technology,
where, in 1896, he became president of an institution
of no reputation, but which, at his death in 1905,
he left ranking among the prominent technical col-
leges of America. Others have done, and are doing,
much to promote this great work for Southern boys,
but these men are the forerunners.
Technical education in the South has had to meet
and overcome many retarding forces. (1) In the
"Old South" there was a narrow and arbitrary
social estimate of the occupations, which has been
succinctly comprehended by Dr. Hall in the state-
ment, "Twenty-five years ago it was impossible for
a young man to wear overalls in the day and a dress
suit in the evening." (2) A tendency among the
present generation of Southern business men to esti-
mate the value of education solely by its power to
increase the earning capacity has made it difficult
to carry technical education beyond the stage of
industrial training. (3) The inefficiency of prepara-
tory schools, especially in rural districts, has been a
difficulty even harder to overcome. (4) A fourth
obstacle has been the general poverty of the South,
which has had the double effect of hurrying young
men out of school into the world of business and
of seriously checking the expansion of the technical
schools because of insufficient maintenance. How-
ever, necessity, a broadened horizon, an increased
wealth, and a larger knowledge are gradually over-
coming these forces, although insufficient income
and poor high schools are two problems with which
Southern technical schools are to-day finding it
difficult to deal.
TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
355
The extent of the progress indicated above ran
best be realized by referring to the tabulated state-
ment given below. The writer has tried to secure
full information from every Southern engineering
college regarding the data given, but in some
instances has not been able to do so.
FIRST YEAR.
Date of
Opening.
Alabama Polytechnic (Auburn) 1872
Texas A. and M 1876
Mississippi A. and M 1880
Georgia School of Technology 1888
North Carolina A. and M 1889
South Carolina A. and M. (Clemson) 1893
First
Graduating
Attendance. Class.
88 15
106 2
354 8
200 2
72 19
446 37
Totals
1266
83
YEAR ENDING JUNE, 1908.
Graduating
Class. Instructors.
76 44
57 48
58 49
39 45
52 42
85 47
367 275
Attendance.
Alabama Polytechnic (Auburn) .... 673
Texas A. and M 608
Mississippi A. and M 780
Georgia School of Technology 562
North Carolina A. and M 500
South Carolina A. and M. (Clemson) 700
Totals 3,823
Instructors.
Alabama Polytechnic
(Auburn) 8
Texas A. and M 8
Mississippi A. and M... 12
Georgia School of Tech-
nology 12
North Carolina A. and M. 5
South Carolina A. and M.
(Clemson) 24
FIRST YEAR.
State
Appropriation
Investment for Courses
in Plant. Maintenance. offered.
$100,000 $ 30,000 M. E.
(about)
187,000 7,500 M. E., E. E.
174,857 20,000 M. E.
(about)
135,000 20,000 M. E.
40,000 10,000 M. E., T. E.
250,000 50,000 M. E.
(about)
Totals 69
$886,857 $137,500
356 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
YEAR ENDING JUNE, 19i
State
Appropriation
Value of for
Plant. Maintenance.
Alabama Polytechnic
(Auburn) (not available) {
)8.
Total Courses
Income. Offered.
M. E., E. E.,
5 115,000* C. E., E.
Chem., Min-
ing, Arch.
246,930 C. E., E. E.,
M. E., T. E.,
E. Chem.
232,810 M. E., C. E.,
E. E., T. E.,
Min.
M. E., E. E.,
114,000 C. E., T. E.,
E. Chem.,
Chem., Arch.
M. E. E.
173,050 Ch'em.',' C.'
E., E. E.,
Mining.
M. E., E. E.,
201,477 C. E., T. E.,
E. Chem.
Texas A. and M. . . . $1,000,000 $ 83,000
Mississippi A. and M. 855,300 65,946
Georgia School of
Technology 660,000 62,500
North Carolina A.
and M 512,420 32,000f
South Carolina A.
and M. (Clerason) 944,426 150,000
Totals $3,972,146 $393,446 $1,083,267
33
Taking as a basis of calculation only those insti-
tutions where we have complete reports, it appears
that within twenty-five years — the average age of
the Southern technical institutions — there has been
an increase, in attendance, of 302 per cent.; in the
number of yearly graduates, of 442 per cent. ; in the
number of instructors, of 400 per cent.; in the
amount contributed annually from the state treas-
ury for maintenance, of 366 per cent. ; in the value
of the school plant, of 505 per cent. ; in the number
of courses offered, of 413 per cent. One more phase
of this development, which cannot be expressed in
figures but which is probably greater than all the
remainder, is the large increase in the efficiency of
these institutions as places of instruction.
* The last Alabama Legislature gave an additional $250,000 for the
needs of the institution.
t The last North Carolina Legislature gave an additional 170,000 for
the needs of the institution.
INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 357
We have, in time past, heard much of Southern
thriftlessness and lack of initiative in industrial
development. In the light of the truths announced
above, it appears the time is at hand when this
taunt will lose all point and meaning. The South
is waking to its vast opportunities, its young men
are being fitted to take advantage of these oppor-
tunities, and our schools of engineering are destined
to become, as the years pass, a continually more
important agency in preparing these young men for
their high service in promoting the progress and
development of the exhaustless resources of the
South.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Mayo, A. D. : Industrial Education in the South
(in the Publications of the United States Bureau of Education,
1888) ; Industrial Education (in The Annals of the American Acad-
emy of Political and Social Science, Jan., 1909) ; Various articles in
The Manufacturers' Record (Baltimore); Reports of the United
States Commissioner of Education; Publications of the Bureau of
Education; Catalogues and special reports of the various technical
institutions throughout the South.
WILLIAM GILMER PERRY,
Professor of English, Georgia School of Technology.
CHAPTER XIV.
INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH.
'OR nearly one hundred years, after the War
of the Revolution, the people of the South
devoted the largest share of their energies
to agricultural pursuits. Large plantations
occupied almost the entire country, with a few cities
of prominence located wide distances apart. The
chief crops were cotton, corn and rice, and these
absorbed the largest share of the planter's attention.
358 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
The plantations generally were located on the exten-
sive bottom lands along the rivers, and were owned
and cultivated by the wealthy men of the South,
descending from father to son through many gen-
erations.
A few manufacturing enterprises were scattered
through the South, but the capital employed was not
comparatively large, and the talents of the young
men, as a general rule, did not seem to turn in the
direction of manufacturing pursuits. The well edu-
cated men and women were satisfied to leave the
matters of manual labor to what were termed the
''middle classes," and the building of manufactories
and the development of the natural resources to
a few men who had the inclination and the money
for such undertakings. Although the South is rich
in mineral deposits, and her water powers are
remarkable in value and accessibility, it took the
shock of the greatest war the world ever witnessed,
and the fearful, devastating "reconstruction"
period, to awaken the South to the importance of
developing her natural resources and diversifying
her industries. When her people became aware that
the South could never return to the proud position
she sustained prior to the war between the states
unless the industries were greatly diversified and
other enterprises besides agricultural were encour-
aged, it became evident that there were but few insti-
tutions within her borders competent to educate her
sons for engineers and artisans. These few insti-
tutions were, moreover, inadequately equipped with
appliances and teachers to meet the demands.
The methods of tilling the soil and gathering the
crops were largely left to the care and under the
control of the overseers, — men who were possessed
of limited education and often of only local experi-
ence. The planter was generally a traveler, with
INDUSTKIAL EDUCATION. 359
culture and broad experience upon matters relating
to the management of state and national affairs.
His sons were educated for the so-called "learned
professions" of law, teaching, the ministry and
medicine. There were no agricultural colleges in
any portion of the country, and the study of the soil
and its possibilities was never contemplated except
by a few men here and there, who were far ahead of
their times.
In a few of the literary colleges some effort was
made prior to 1850 to teach the application of sci-
ence to agriculture. But in no institutions of stand-
ing were courses in mechanic arts offered to the
young men. The following may be given as prac-
tically the only opportunities presented in the South
for the training of men and women for industrial
pursuits.
In 1796, Dr. John de la Howe of Abbeville, South
Carolina, left the bulk of his property for the pur-
pose of establishing an agricultural school. In The
Higher Education in South Carolina, published by
the United States Bureau of Education, it is
asserted that this institution was the first manual
labor school founded in the United States. Some
years after the school had been in successful opera-
tion the editor of the American Farmer spoke of it
as follows:
' ' We very much doubt whether a very more really beneficent will
can be found on record than the one we are about to mention. We
have no information of the character of the deceased, nor of his
wealth or will, but what is contained in an advertisement which we
find in a South Carolina paper. By this advertisement it appears
that provision is made in the will of the late John de la Howe for
the education of twenty-four poor children, twelve boys and twelve
girls. The trustees appointed to carry the will into effect advertised
for a teacher to superintend a farm school as planned and provided
for in the will of the deceased. They have provided a good farm,
suitable dwellings, utensils, provisions and necessary stock, and offer
a libpral salary for a teacher. According to the plan of the school
in the will, the children will live together in one family, and the
expenses are to be defrayed out of the profits of the estate with the
360 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
addition of the labor of the children on the farm. The qualifications
required of the teacher show that the intention of the liberal testator
are to be carried into effect to their full extent. He must possess an
unimpeachable moral character, and suitable habits and attainments
to instruct in all branches of English and scientific literature, sub-
servient to agriculture and housewifery."
This school has been in successful operation for
nearly one hundred years and is in existence at the
present time.
In 1829 the state legislature of South Carolina
took charge of the funds of this school and named
the trustees. Col. Eobt. A. Thompson of Walhalla
has kindly furnished the writer with the names of
the members of this board, viz. : Alexander Hunter,
James Allston, Eev. John T. Pressley, Dr. John
Logan and James A. Black. Colonel Thompson
thinks the successors of these trustees are still in
control of the school.
E. K. Meade of Frederick county, Virginia, wrote
in 1821 of the l ' expediency of the legislatures estab-
lishing schools in each state to teach the philosophy
united with the practices of agriculture. That sev-
eral hundred acres should be placed under the super-
intendence of a well informed, practical farmer who
would lead our youths into the fields to learn and to
perform every variety of labor that could be useful
to them in their future professions, and on each of
these farms there should also be a professor to lec-
ture on the proper subjects and attend to the com-
pletion of the best English education."
In 1829, J. D. Legare, editor of the Southern Agri-
culturist, published at Charleston, called attention
to the "necessity of agricultural education being
bestowed on those intended for superintendents of
plantations, and the benefits which would arise from
proper encouragement being held out to respectable
youths to engage as such. The Agricultural Society
of South Carolina should establish a school to be
INDUSTKIAL EDUCATION. 361
called the Agricultural Institute, to be regulated
as follows:
"1. There should be a lecturer on mechanics and mechanical philos-
ophy, to understand which the student should previously be acquainted
with mathematics. A knowledge of these subjects is important in
laying out lands, banking, draining, etc.
"2. A lecturer on agricultural chemistry. From him a knowledge
of different soils and manures, and soils appropriate for certain
manures (a very important part, certainly, of agricultural knowl-
edge) would be obtained.
"3. A lecturer who would demonstrate practically the principles
pointed out in the foregoing lectures, as well as give a history of
different domestic animals and the manner of keeping and raising
them. For this purpose a farm contiguous to the city might be
obtained by the individual undertaking this duty. The lectures to be
delivered in the summer months and the lecturers to receive a specific
sum from each pupil. In the winter it should be required of those
who belong to the institution to place themselves under some judicious
agriculturist, there to learn the management of laborers, and all
the details and operations of a plantation. After a certain period
of time, if the pupils have given satisfaction, a licentiate of agri-
culture should be granted them, which would give character and
standing to those intending to become superintendents of plantations
and wipe away the odious and invidious name 'overseer.' "
Within four miles of the town of Pendleton, South
Carolina, on Mr. K. P. Simpson's plantation, there
was established, in 1830, a "Manual Labor School"
in which was taught agriculture, carpentry, etc. The
school was in charge of Kev. J. L. Kennedy, who
was a successful teacher, and some of the boys who
grew to be among the noted public men of those
days were pupils under him. The school had but a
short existence. It was broken up by an epidemic
of typhoid fever and was never reestablished.
Efforts were put forth by some progressive men
in South Carolina in 1836 to have the General
Assembly pass a bill requiring the board of trustees
of the South Carolina College to establish a chair
of agriculture in connection with that institution.
The bill was introduced in the senate and was
referred to the committee on education. In due time
the bill was reported back with favorable recom-
mendation. The senate consisted largely of planters.
362 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
After a short debate on the measure it was defeated
by a large vote on the motion that the step was use-
less because "the best and only place to study agri-
culture was between the plough handles and behind
the mule."
Shortly after this incident, Dr. Thomas Cooper,
president of the South Carolina College, in his
annual report to the trustees also recommended the
establishment of the chair of agriculture, but his
wise proposition received the same defeat with the
trustees which met the bill in the state senate.
In 1844, near Nashville, Tennessee, Franklin Col-
lege was located, its charter having been granted
January 30, 1844. The Southern Cultivator, in men-
tioning the faculty, speaks of the following chairs:
"Tolbert Fanning, the president, was also professor of intellectual
and moral science, natural history, agriculture and horticulture;
I. N. Loomis, professor of mathematics, chemistry, mechanic arts and
assistant professor of horticulture; John Eichbaum, professor of
ancient languages and assistant professor of agriculture and horti-
culture. There was a physical department attached to the college,
to secure health, vigorous constitution, sound minds and good morals ;
a sufficiency of agriculture to teach the properties and improvement
of the soil, the proper cultivation of different grains, and the man-
agement of the farm stock; also orcharding in all its branches, and
the mechanic arts will be introduced. Each student, as an indis-
pensable part of his education, will devote from two to five hours
per day to some one or more branches of physical industry. The
profits accruing from the labor, after paying for materials and rents,
will belong to the student."
The Cultivator (1844) states that "this institu-
tion is the first of its kind that has been attempted
in America."
On the first of January, 1845, an agricultural
school was established in Ashe county, North Caro-
lina, under the patronage of Bishop Ives. It was a
manual labor school and contained 500 acres of land
with the necessary buildings. There was a liberal
education given with the instruction on agricultural
subjects.
INDUSTEIAL EDUCATION. 363
The Mississippi University in 1849 had a chair
of " chemistry and its application to agriculture and
the arts."
Gen. W. H. Richardson, editor of the Richmond
Enquirer, in 1843, urged the establishment of agri-
tural schools in Virginia.
The Terrell Professorship of Agriculture was
established in the University of Georgia (then called
Franklin College) by Dr. William Terrell of Sparta,
Ga., July 27, 1854. In a letter addressed to the
board he tendered bonds to the amount of $20,000,
"the annual interest of which shall be applied per-
manently as compensation of a professor whose duty
it shall be to deliver in the college a course of lec-
tures during its terms on agriculture as a science;
the practice and improvement of different people;
on chemistry and geology so far as they may be
useful in agriculture ; on manures, analysis of soils,
and on domestic economy, particularly referring to
the Southern states; the lectures to be free." Dr.
Daniel Lee was elected the first professor at the
suggestion of the testator. Dr. Lee at the time was
the editor of the Genesee Farmer and also of the
Southern Cultivator.
The Southern Cultivator of August, 1855, in
speaking of the establishment of this chair, says:
"It is due to the history of agriculture as a science
in this country that we record the fact that no other
person in this great Republic has given for imme-
diate use to increase and diffuse rural knowledge,
more than one-fourth the sum donated by the patri-
otic and distinguished founder of the first professor-
ship of agriculture in the Southern states. A sim-
ilar professorship was established a few years since
in Yale College on the gift of $5,000 by Mr. Norton,
whose son was appointed to fill the new chair thus
364 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
created. No paternal or family tie has in any way
been associated with the munificence of Dr. Terrell."
The establishment of the chair of agriculture
caused Dr. F. H. Gordon of Tennessee to write to the
Southern Cultivator in 1855 the following prophetic
words :
' ' Your agricultural professorship may be regarded as the begin-
niiig of an era — the formation of which will make a powerful impress
upon the character, intelligence, wealth and future destiny of all
the states. Permit me to express the hope that the University of
Georgia will not stop short, and rest satisfied with an agricultural
department alone. Though this by far is the most important to the
country, yet in order to make a great, prosperous and learned com-
munity, all classes must be educated. Persons in all the occupations
ought to have a school where they can learn scientifically and prac-
tically all that will aid them in their pursuits. It is, therefore,
hoped that your university will ultimately not only teach agriculture,
but will also teach the science and practice of all the manufacturing
and mechanic arts; so that students leaving the university will be at
once qualified, theoretically and practically, for all the trades they are
to follow."
This was written about seven years prior to the
final passage of the Morrill bill in Congress which
established the agricultural and mechanical colleges
in all the states of the Union.
The people gathered together on frequent occa-
sions to discuss important questions of the farm and
economy of living. There were strong and old agri-
cultural societies in the South, the members of which
were the distinguished statesmen and leading citi-
zens of the country.
The Agricultural Society of South Carolina began
in 1784, and at its date of first meeting, August 24,
1785, the first president, Thomas Heyward, Jr., one
of the signers of the Declaration of Independence,
was elected. The first vice-president, elected at the
same time, was Thomas Pinckney, a distinguished
citizen of South Carolina, a minister to England
and Spain, candidate for president of the United
States, and a distinguished officer in the Kevolu-
INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 365
tionary War. Among the list of early members is
to be found the name of Thomas Jefferson, and also
those of many other great men of the nation in that
day. The discussions before this and other societies
of the kind in other states of the South supplied
largely the lack of the industrial college. Those men
who were the planters as well as the statesmen of
the times, discussed before the societies the impor-
tant topics of the farm and home life, and the trans-
actions of the society were filled with a fund of
information which was the traditional knowledge of
the planter, rich in personal experience and the
results also of intelligent observation. Through the
efforts of the South Carolina Society the State Geo-
logical and Agricultural Survey was authorized by
law, and under Tourney this survey was vigorously
prosecuted and from his pen came one of the clas-
sical geological publications extant.
In 1847, Mitchell King delivered in the Hall of
Representatives an address before the State Agri-
cultural Society of South Carolina, which was
replete with information far beyond the times, and
reads like a bulletin of the Agricultural Experiment
Station of this day. An extract is given here to indi-
cate my contention that these agricultural societies
were important educational bodies disseminating
knowledge of great moment to the people. In speak-
ing of the connection between the cultivation of the
earth and the cultivation of the mind, Mr. King said :
"Matters of inquiry on subjects connected with agriculture are
absolutely as boundless as the physical history of the earth which
we inhabit. Every year is making new discoveries in the diversities
of soil, of the elements of which it is composed, of the growth of
plants, of what they owe to the air or to the elements of which it is
composed, to the light, to electricity, and all the agencies in vegeta-
tion by which, in the wonderful laboratory of nature, the grain pro-
duces fruit after its kind, and the small seed becomes a great tree.
Our cotton fields are exposed to many enemies, at one time a small
caterpillar, that in summer changes into a pretty moth; at another
time a large kind of caterpillar called the army worm; at another
366 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
time the cut worm or the cotton louse attacks the cotton plant and
blasts the hopes of the planter. The Hessian fly lays waste the wheat
field ; the locust that has been buried in the ground, it has been said
for years, issues in its larva state, a plague, and spreads devastation
and ruin in its track. These, and insects like these, are undoubtedly
governed in their production and ravages by laws which are little
understood. If we knew these laws we might be able to effectually
check or entirely prevent their ravages. The accumulation of facts
respecting these several destroyers brought together and reported at
our anniversaries would furnish materials from which science might
ascertain these laws."
In the agricultural journals and before the agri-
cultural societies from 1820 to 1860 there were arti-
cles published and speeches delivered on the impor-
tance of industrial education, but there seemed to be
no concerted and persistent effort put forth to build
colleges where engineering and agricultural courses
were provided for the training of the young men of
the South. This fact seems strange and unaccount-
able when we remember that in the first half of the
century the Southern planters had established
methods of farming operations, which not only
brought great wealth and culture to the people, but
elicited the praise and admiration of writers and
observers from other sections of the world.
In 1847, John S. Skinner, editor of the Journal
of Agriculture, published in New York, took a trip
through the South, and the following impression
made on him concerning the planters of the South
shows that these men were great agriculturists and
were well informed on many other subjects. The
children of these planters were raised in an atmos-
phere of culture and their agricultural training was
practically given on the plantation. Domestic econ-
omy and housekeeping were instilled into the daugh-
ters by the most thorough and best housekeepers
that were to be found in any part of the United
States. The remarkable fact stands out boldly,
therefore, that with all this experience, industrial
INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 367
education was not provided in the colleges of the
country. Mr. Skinner said in speaking of that time :
' ' On few subjects does there exist so much delusion in the North
as in reference to the habits and character and management of the
Southern planter. Let him who would form a judgment go and see
for himself and converse with them as we did in the social and public
circle, and if we are not egregiously deceived, he must admit that
they are nowhere to be excelled for that enlarged knowledge of the
true principles of good husbandry which has been gained not alone
from books, but yet more from eager and sagacious inquiry and con-
versational intercourse, and from that best of all books, experience,
in the resolute and skillful and industrious management of their own
estates. Let the amateur or the connoisseur who would enjoy that
most beautiful of all prospects, — large estates, well and neatly man-
aged,— go and take a look at the rice plantations in Georgia and the
cotton plantations of South Carolina and farther South."
One of the results of the war between the states
was to awaken the South to a full realization of her
helplessness in her struggles for high position
among other peoples because of her lack of knowl-
edge concerning mechanical and other industrial
pursuits besides agriculture. The sad mistake she
made in devoting her entire attention to the cultiva-
tion of the soil must be corrected, and some of her
people must become concerned in matters relating
to developing manufacturers and artisans, and must
encourage her sons to follow also the profession of
the civil, mechanical, electrical, and textile engineer.
The Congress of the United States in 1862 passed
a bill donating to each state and territory 30,000
acres of land for each representative the common-
wealth had in Congress. The funds arising from the
sale of these lands was to be used to endow agricul-
tural and mechanical colleges in the several states.
The war prevented, however, any Southern state
from reaping an advantage from the terms of this
law, and not until 1872 did any state avail herself of
the advantages of these large sums for the estab-
lishment of industrial colleges. "Reconstruction"
being in full power about this time, much of this
368 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
treasure was stolen by the "carpet-baggers" and
the negroes who were in full charge of state legisla-
tures. When the white people came into possession
of their government, with depleted treasuries and a
people loaded down with tremendous debts which
were the results of four years of war and nearly ten
years of negro and "carpet-bagger" rule, they met
with great difficulties in restoring these funds.
These colleges, however, in a few years after 1872,
were established in all states of the South, and began
the splendid work which resulted in the preparation
of so many sons and daughters for industrial service
to the country.
At first ridicule was cast on these colleges by many
thoughtless people and by some of the leading jour-
nals in the South. They were strongly and persist-
ently fought by the classical system then in vogue in
all the old colleges and universities which had held
sway for so many hundred years in this and foreign
lands. There were mistakes also made by the friends
of these industrial colleges in attempting too much
at first, and in some states in trying to ingraft the
new education on to the old classical courses, with
the lion's share of the time devoted to Latin and
Greek.
In the establishment of these agricultural and
mechanical colleges a serious difficulty at once arose
because the South did not have a sufficient number
of trained men to fill the engineering and other
industrial chairs. It is astonishing that such good
work was accomplished. There were teachers of
eminence and marked ability filling the chairs of
mathematics, language and literature in the South-
ern colleges and universities, but very few advanced
scientific thinkers were available. These few men,
however, were wise beyond their times, and fortu-
nately to them was entrusted the starting and plan-
INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 369
ning of these new industrial institutions. Such men
as William Le Eoy Broun, president of the Georgia
State College; I. T. Tichenor, president of the Ala-
bama Polytechnic Institute; Gen. Stephen D. Lee,
president of the Mississippi Agricultural College;
J. M. McBryde, president of the South Carolina Uni-
versity, in connection with which university the
Agricultural and Mechanical College was established
prior to 1890. In 1890, however, the college was sep-
arated from the university under the name of Clem-
son Agricultural College. These men, with others
like them, did heroic and pioneer work with con-
siderable odds against them, even among the people
they were trying to benefit.
The dark clouds which hung over the entire South
from 1860 to 1890 have passed away, and may the
power of omnipotence never permit the people to
suffer the like again. Rapid progress is being made
in educating the young men and women of the South,
resulting in intelligent attack upon the social, polit-
ical and industrial problems which have disturbed
the people for so many years. The present is bright
with hope and the future is auspicious, representing
an educated people, cultured, happy and prosperous
in the enjoyment of the good things of this world.
The South, restored to her important place in the
councils of the Nation, is now in full control of her
own people who are solving the problems of the cul-
tivation of the soil and making the farm a place of
beauty and source of wealth ; who have reduced the
percentage of death by eradicating from land, air
and water the causes of diseases, and who have
made the bowels of the earth yield the wealth hidden
therein, and jkarnessed to the factory wheels the
water powers running to waste in the streams.
These results of industrial education indicate what
Vol. 107-24
370 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
the future has in store for the South if all the
resources are put forth under the control of the
thoroughly educated mind and hand.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Higher Education in South Carolina and Other
Southern States, issued by United States Bureau of Education;
Southern Agriculturist, published prior to 1835; Southern Cultivator,
published prior to 1860; College Catalogues of the older universities
in the South; The Farmers' Library and Monthly Journal of Agri-
culture, by Skinner (1846 and earlier years); Manufacturers' Record
(Baltimore) ; Historical publications of Georgia, Alabama, South
Carolina and North Carolina; The American Farmer, prior to 1860;
Address by B. K. Meade of Virginia in 1821; Transactions of state
agricultural societies, prior to 1860; Annual Report of Thomas Cooper
to Board of Trustees of South Carolina College, 1836; South Carolina
Statutes (Vols. V and VI); Richmond (Va.) Enquirer (1843; Gen-
esse Farmer (1854) ; Address before South Carolina Agricultural
Society in 1847 by Mitchell King; The Laws of Congress relating to
industrial education; Soil of the South, published in Columbus, Ga.,
prior to 1860.
PATRICK HUES MELL,,
President of Clemson Agricultural College.
CHAPTER XV.
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN THE
SOUTHERN STATES.
The Morrill Bill.
REMARKABLE feature of the revival of
learning since the Dark Ages, is that at first
the most prominent branches of study re-
lated to things of the least consequence to the
common people, and that it has taken a long period
of years for the schools to give instruction in mat-
ters of every-day life and of special value to the
masses. There was a slight awakening to the impor-
tance of agricultural education in the United States
as early as 1800, but it required nearly sixty years
for this to take the definite form of an appropriation
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 371
by Congress, known as the Morrill Bill, under which
the colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts were
established. This bill was passed in 1862 and
granted to each state a total number of acres out
of the public domain equal to 30,000 for each con-
gressional district in the state. These lands were
mainly for the purpose of endowment and the state
was required to provide the buildings and equip-
ment. It was impossible for the Southern states to
accept the conditions of this Act at the time, conse-
quently it was some years before these colleges
were fully established in each of those states. An-
other feature peculiar to the South in accepting
this grant was that the funds were generally divided
so as to give a portion to colleges for the colored as
well as for the whites. Inasmuch as it was left
entirely to the states to determine just how each
state would avail itself of the fund, in a number of
cases the college of agriculture was made a part of
the state university, and in others they were made
independent colleges of agriculture, or of agricul-
ture and the mechanic arts combined.
These colleges have sometimes been criticized upon
the claim that they have not given a practical edu-
cation, nor have many of their graduates returned
to the farms to be useful citizens in promoting the
cause of agriculture. This criticism will hardly
stand if we consider that it requires a long time to
thoroughly establish any line of education and per-
fect it. At first, upon the revival of letters, hardly
anything was taught but the classics and mathe-
matics and it took centuries before science was per-
mitted to have a standing of equal rank with the
classics. From this standpoint it would appear that
agricultural training has made remarkable progress
sixice the establishment of these colleges of agri-
372 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
culture, and a large share of credit is due to them
for their general influence and for their leadership
along industrial lines. They should not be judged
by the specific number of men that have returned to
the farm, but by the general uplift that they have
given to the rural South. There has been quite a
difference in the value of the work done by the sev-
eral colleges; some have made most remarkable
progress, others have not succeeded quite so well,
but this difference is only natural and it has been
made clear that all are putting forth an effort to
do their best for the people.
The Hatch Bill.
In 1887 the Hatch Bill became a law. This
granted to the several states the sum of $15,000 per
annum for the establishment and maintenance of at
least one experiment station in each state. This
was a great acquisition, especially for the South.
Immediately a corps of trained workers was placed
in each state to investigate and develop the re-
sources and to promote greater results along lines
that were in actual progress. In 1890 the second
Morrill Bill became a law, granting to each state
$15,000 immediately, and an increase of $1,000 per
annum until a maximum of $25,000 for each state
should be reached, which would be a permanent
endowment for instruction in agriculture. These
appropriations by the Federal government placed
the agricultural colleges upon a basis of independ-
ence. In addition, the states as a rule were very
liberal to the agricultural colleges and they were
able to do extension work in addition to carrying on
the work of instruction, and their field of investi-
gations and experiments. This extension work has
taken the form of lectures by the professors in the
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 373
various parts of the state, and of sub-stations which
were designed to meet special conditions of soil or
climate so as to afford aid to various sections that
required assistance in agriculture. These sub-sta-
tions have been exceedingly helpful to the people
and have seemed to work in a very satisfactory
manner, not only for furnishing information along
special agricultural lines, but for the spreading of
knowledge as to farm crops and the best farm man-
agement.
Farmers' Institutes.
Another line of agricultural instruction has been
generally undertaken by the states, known as Farm-
ers' Institutes, by which the experience of the best
farmers in the management of the soil, the produc-
tion of crops, the care and management of live-
stock, the better marketing of the products, and the
production of fruit, in fact nearly all lines of farm
industry, has been carried to every section of the
state and brought to the attention of the average
man who might not otherwise receive the benefits of
such experience.
Agriculture in Primary and Secondary Schools.
Recently a movement has been vigorously pro-
moted to establish secondary agricultural schools in
each county or each Congressional district, which
schools would be subsidiary in a sense to the agri-
cultural college and would prepare teachers for giv-
ing instruction in agriculture, or fit men to go on the
farm and become managers of farms, either on their
own account or for others. Several states, espe-
cially Alabama and Georgia, have established quite a
number of these secondary schools. It is too soon
to determine their exact value, but undoubtedly the
374 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
problem will be worked out for the betterment of
the farmer.
A number of the Southern states have passed
laws requiring the teaching of agriculture in the
common schools. This problem has not been fully
solved, but it has set in motion a current of influ-
ence which cannot fail to result in good. Many
books are being prepared for the pupils of such
schools, all of more or less value. It is no argu-
ment against the establishment of these schools that
they have not vaulted into the highest success at
the first moment, because such a result requires
time. It is difficult to secure, at the present time,
enough teachers who are thoroughly equipped to
adequately manage these schools. The fact that
some states have already established them and
others are discussing the proposition of starting
with one or more so as to acquire experience and
learn how to deliver the volume of information to
the people through these schools, is worthy of note
and shows the great uprising in favor of making a
greater common people.
In a large number of schools nature studies have
been taught for some time with considerable suc-
cess. This branch of learning, when carefully
taught, has been of great value, both to parents and
pupils, and has opened to the people new lines of
investigation which have been replete with useful
knowledge.
Work of the Department of Agriculture.
Within the last twelve years, another line of help
has entered the Southern states with great vigor
and that is the United States Department of Agri-
culture. Under the leadership of James Wilson,
secretary of agriculture, nearly all lines of work
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 375
related to the farms have received most helpful
attention. From his statesman-like standpoint he
has felt it necessary that all parts of the Union
should be strengthened, and that the only way to
make a great state was to broaden the knowledge of
the people in regard to rural matters, and give
them independence by increasing their incomes.
Nearly every industry in the South connected with
agriculture has been wonderfully helped by the
specialists that this department has sent to their
aid. The Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration
Work, which is the rural free delivery of the world's
best seeds, plants, methods, utilities and knowledge,
to the various localities for their betterment, has
been established and maintained by congressional
appropriation, and by large contributions from the
General Education Board of New York. The object
of this work is not to plant here and there a thor-
oughly trained and highly cultured farmer, but to
create a mass greatness and refinement by increas-
ing the income of the average toiler. It has been
most effective in securing this result.
Among the notable things done for the education
of the masses should be mentioned the establish-
ment of schools for the colored people, which have
tended to direct them toward industrial occupa-
tions. Notable among these, and as leaders, should
be mentioned the great industrial school at Hamp-
ton, Va., and the one at Tuskegee, Ala. Hundreds
of smaller schools along the same lines are in suc-
cessful operation.
Farmers' Unions.
The organization of thousands of farmers under
the name of " Farmers' Unions" is a sufficient proof
that the industrial influences have reached the heart
376 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
of the people. More than 2,000,000 farmers in the
Southern states are thus trying to work out the
problems of the farm and give aid and information
along lines that are exceedingly helpful. They are
especially active in urging that the farmers shall
produce their own home supplies upon the farm;
that they shall be free from debt so as to be able to
handle their crops according to their own best inter-
ests. The very fact of their teaching cooperative
buying and selling has been a wonderful power for
good. This cooperative effort shows an advance in
civilization, and an appreciation of how one man
can aid another, and that the joint forces of a body
of well-organized men is more powerful than indi-
vidual effort.
Agricultural Press; Rural Free Delivery.
One of the most active and influential forces in
any state is the press. The entire press of the
South has been favorable to agriculture, but the
agricultural press is especially to be commended.
It includes some of the most valuable journals in
the whole country. They are filled with the best
information and go to every section with a message
of good and an inspiration to stand upon a higher
plane. In this connection it should be mentioned
that the rural free delivery of mails is a most valu-
able gain to the farmer. The man living in an iso-
lated locality, remote from the centres of trade, is
rather inclined to withdraw from society and the
influences which are affecting the country. This
rural free delivery has greatly stimulated the ten-
dency of the people to read and become informed
upon topics of interest. It is helpful, not only to
the farm, but to state and national progress.
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 377
Demonstration Methods.
It is not assumed here that in these various lines
of education and training the states have done their
whole duty. A whole body of useful learning can
be introduced into the common schools by demon-
stration methods. To test this about one thousand
school boys in Mississippi were organized into clubs
in 1908 under their teachers and each planted a
half acre of cotton or corn on his father's farm.
The results were exceedingly satisfactory.
The United States Cooperative Demonstration
Work furnishes the plans of organization, the seed
and the instructions for producing the crop; the
farmers furnish land, teams and implements; the
merchants and bankers provide the premiums; and
all the people enter into the movement. This school-
boy organization was a marvelous success in every
way and the father learned as quickly as the boy.
One boy in Mississippi made 120 bushels of corn
to the acre, 14 bushels being about the average
product in the state. The boys held meetings, dis-
cussed farm problems and achieved something of
which they were proud and that gave them hope.
Another interesting point — it cost less than $50 per
county to organize, furnish seed and instruct from
300 to 400 boys, because every agent employed was
already paid by the state. It shows what can be
accomplished by forces already under pay if re-
directed and inspired.
Take the common school. It touches every rural
community. If the teacher knows enough agricul-
ture to readjust production in his locality, and will
endeavor to direct and encourage the farmers, or
in case the teacher be a woman, if she will organize
housekeepers' clubs and give instruction, teach
sewing, cooking, hygiene, with talks about poultry
378 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
and the garden, what a power for good the rural
school will become. This cannot be accomplished
until the masses become more prosperous. As it is,
the rural school is an educating force with mainly
one direction and one injunction. The direction
leads away from the farm and the injunction is
"Get away from the plow and the kitchen and
become a George Washington, or a Frances Willard.
It is old fashioned to settle down and have common
honesty and be useful to the world."
If it be essential to the nation that there be a
great common people, then some of our colleges and
seminaries should point that way and try to build
up a higher common life.
Every book from the first reader to the most
exhaustive treatise on science, philosophy or litera-
ture and every school from the pedagogic cabin on
the mountain side to the greatest university in the
land has joined in teaching the plow boy that he can
become president of the United States if he will
acquire an education. Our national weakness to-day
is lack of integrity, competency and faithfulness in
the common walks of life.
What the Agricultural College Should Be and Teach.
Our colleges of agriculture have done a great
work, but the people should rally around them, in-
crease their resources and broaden their activities.
The state agricultural college should be a part of
the state government as essentially as the United
States department of agriculture is a part of the
national administration.
In addition to teaching youth it should plan and
execute. It should have charge of the state con-
servation forces, the soil, the water, the forests, the
mines, the fisheries, etc. Thus could be organized
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 379
admirable extensions of the national work under
state supervision and control. All the departments
of education should reach out towards the most
effective accomplishment. In this way the college
would prepare in the class room and furnish the
field work for a body of young men fitted for useful
service in the upbuilding of a state. It is time the
antiquated plan of one class teaching and the other
practicing, a class of leisure and a class of toil
(inherited from a period when there were only two
classes — master and slave) was abolished. The new
life demands that the one who plans shall execute.
The preacher must lead ; the teacher must do things ;
the professors in industrial colleges must be men of
affairs. There must be no leisure class. By such
extension of the forces already in the field the
rural South will come into its rightful heritage of
prosperity.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. — Bulletins and Publications of the Agricultural Col-
leges and Experiment Stations of the United States; Reports of U.
S. Dept. of Agriculture; Congressional Eecords; The Encyclopedia
Americana; General agricultural literature.
SEAMAN A. KNAPP,
Agent in Charge Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration
Work in the Southern States.
380 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE KINDERGARTEN IN THE SOUTH.
i
N fche forty or more years since its final estab-
lishment in the United States the kinder-
garten has spread throughout the entire
country. In the East and West and in the
New England states it has passed its experimental
stage and has become an integral part of the public
school system in practically all cities and towns of
any proportion. The South has been slow in adopt-
ing it. There we find it in all stages, from the
period of swaddling clothes to confident youth and
well-established maturity. In spite of its conserva-
tism, Richmond, Va., not only claims the first elec-
tric trolley system, but also the first kindergarten
in the United States. The exact date is lost to his-
tory. It had but a short existence and its influence
upon public opinion was "as smoke in air, or in the
water, foam. ' ' It was some twenty years after this
effort — about 1885 — that the kindergarten obtained
any real footing in the school system. Private kin-
dergartens of varying degrees of efficiency and ineffi-
ciency existed 'tis true, but their life was precari-
ous and interrupted and their influence sporadic
The South, in common with other sections of the
country, had to suffer from the well-meaning efforts
of the young woman of leisure and small means,
who, because of her fondness for children and a
desire to augment her income, opened so-called kin-
dergartens which bore about as much resemblance
to the real thing as the chromo to art, or the quack
doctor to the scientist. That day is over, and the
kindergarten in the South is at last on a professional
KINDERGARTEN EDUCATION. 381
basis and no one dares attempt it who has not had a
two-years' course in preparation.
The South now has an honorable record of twenty-
eight training schools for kindergartners in twelve
states. Thirteen states now have public school kin-
dergartens. Of the remaining three — South Carolina,
Tennessee and Arkansas — the latter has incorpo-
rated a kindergarten clause in her school law. ' ' The
spirit is willing" but the wherewithal is not yet
forthcoming. Thirteen states have kindergartens
supported by associations, churches or mills, as well
as private kindergartens connected with schools or
independent. Missouri and Kentucky have public
kindergartens for negro children. In all but four-
West Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma
—some provision has been made for this race by
associations or missions. In only four states, how-
ever— Virginia, Georgia, Kentucky and Missouri — is
any opportunity offered to young negro women to be
trained as kindergartners.
In the public work Missouri leads in point of time,
having established public kindergartens in 1873. She
leads also in numbers with 126 kindergartens to her
credit. Louisiana follows with forty, Kentucky with
thirty-five, Oklahoma with thirty, and Maryland with
twenty-six. The others follow in varying numbers
from thirteen, in Georgia, to one, in the huge state
of Texas.
The First Kindergarten.
It was in the city of St. Louis, Mo., that the first
public kindergarten and the first training-school for
kindergartners came into being. In 1873 Dr. Wm.
T. Harris, ex-United States commissioner of educa-
tion, then superintendent of schools in St. Louis,
established the first public kindergarten, with Miss
Susan Blow in charge. Miss Blow offered her serv-
383 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
ices, having become an enthusiast in the new system
of child-training. She acted in the capacity of both
kindergartner and trainer and from her school have
come the ablest and best known trainers in the field
at the present time. St. Louis became the centre
from which radiated in every direction the impetus
to establish kindergartens all over the country, and
Miss Blow, whose family were originally Virginians,
has become the acknowledged leader of and interpre-
ter for the whole kindergarten fraternity. Chiefly
through the writings of Dr. Harris and Miss Blow
the kindergarten has been put on its proper philo-
sophic basis in this country and is fulfilling the
prophecy of its creator, Friedrich Froebel, that the
United States would be the best field for the devel-
opment of his idea. Though attacked in many
instances by what its founder would have considered
educational heresies, it continues to grow in
numbers and in public appreciation.
Kindergarten Associations.
The formation of kindergarten associations was
the direct result of the St. Louis movement. These
associations were largely composed of enthusiastic
women who undertook to support one or more kin-
dergartens for the purpose of demonstrating to the
public school authorities the value of its training
as a preparation for school work. In many instances
the public kindergarten began in this way and was
eventually adopted and supported by the school
boards.
Such associations have sprung into being in all
the Southern states and are, for the most part, full
of life and energy. They have been very active in
drawing attention to and creating interest in the
kindergarten. In 1905, at the Knoxville, Tenn., sum-
mer school, and at the suggestion of Miss Amalie
KINDERGARTEN EDUCATION. 383
Hofer, these associations formed themselves into a
federation known as the Southern Kindergarten
Association, and chose for its motto, "Kindergartens
throughout the South, for the South, and by the
South." It has succeeded in unifying and extending
kindergarten interests and in raising the standard
of work both in kindergartens and training schools.
Their plan of work for 1909 is, briefly stated, as fol-
lows: To endeavor to form a kindergarten depart-
ment in each state federation of woman's clubs and
state teachers' organizations ; to urge appropriations
for schools, parks and public playgrounds; to
endorse compulsory education and child-labor
reform, and to increase the number of kindergartens.
The president of the association is Miss Marion S.
Hanckel, of Charleston, S. C. ; honorary president,
Professor P. P. Clayton, of the University of Ten-
nessee. It holds a yearly meeting, at which reports
are read by the state secretaries. The last meeting
was held in Knoxville, Tenn.
Importance of the Kindergarten.
A marked evidence of the increased interest in
the kindergarten in the South was the invitation
extended to the International Kindergarten Union
by the city of New Orleans to hold there its annual
session in 1908. The invitation was accepted and a
large and enthusiastic meeting was the result, at
which were representatives from every state in the
Union and from foreign countries. There is every
sign that the South is awaking to a realization of the
importance of taking the child between his nursery
and school periods and by means of a system which
is perfectly adapted to his stage of development and
needs, preparing him for the concentrated study of
after years. He must acquire the powers of concen-
tration and attention, observation and self-expres-
384 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
sion, self-discipline and cooperation. He must
develop originality and imagination before he enters
upon the work of learning, and at this habit-form-
ing period of his life he must live daily the ideals
which make for the highest type of manhood and
womanhood. Statistics show that the child who has
had two years in a good kindergarten goes ahead
much more rapidly than other children and usually
saves a year or more in his school life. That this
is not always the case is partly due to the perversion
of or imperfect application of Froebel's theories—
sometimes to the unmodern methods of primary
teachers. Of its moral influence Dr. Wm. T. Harris
has said, in a pamphlet entitled, The Kindergarten
as a Preparation for the Highest Civilization: ' ' The
child from four to six years of age, the proper
age for the kindergarten, has not yet hardened him-
self through the influence of the slum, or through the
influence of a too indulgent education in the nursery
of a rich family, so as to be beyond the hope of
cure through the school. The kindergarten is for
this reason the most potent of all the instrumentali-
ties used to overcome the influence of the slums
which exist in our cities. The slum has been called
the menace to civilization. It is certainly the men-
ace to local self-government and political freedom.
As a matter of self-preservation each city should
organize a strong force of kindergartens throughout
all precincts where the weaklings of society come
together." Is not this a hint of the importance of
establishing kindergartens for the negro chil-
dren of whom the slums of the South are largely
composed !
Growth of Kindergartens in South.
The following table gives the statistics of kinder-
garten growth in the Southern states :
KINDERGARTEN EDUCATION.
385
o
II!
fit
O3 Q,
Present
number
When
established
Public kinder-
gartens for
colored
children
Association,
mill and
church kin-
dergartens
Association or
mission kin-
dergartens,
colored
children
Number of
associations
Maryland
26
1892
14
3
1
Virginia
12
1903
9
4
4
West Virginia.
4
1885
North Carolina
6
1907
3
4
South Carolina
30
4
6
Georgia
21
1905
20
Q
Alabama
5
1894
18
2
2
Mississippi. . .
4
1894
Louisiana. . . .
31
1887
4
5
1
Florida
6
1905
21
2
1
Texas
1
1906
25
2
5
Kentucky
35
1887
7
12
1
Tennessee
3
8
1
Arkansas
2
1
Oklahoma
30
1904
Missouri
126
1873
10
7
1
There are at present thirty-two schools for teach-
ers in the South, located as follows: Baltimore,
Richmond, Norfolk, Farmville Normal, Hampton
(colored), Charleston, Bockville, Greenville, Savan-
nah, Atlanta, Columbus, Macon, Atlanta University
(colored), Birmingham, New Orleans (2), Tallahas-
see, Stetson University, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Louis-
ville (colored), Chattanooga, Little Bock, Edmond,
Alva, Weatherford, Epworth University, Warrens-
burg, Kirksville, Cape Girardeau, St. Louis.
A word as to the education of Southern young
women. The South has ever stood for the ideal of
home and family life. The education which trains
for her a wise motherhood is directly in line with her
ideals. In the education of women in women's col-
leges an effort is being made to introduce household
and (Jomsel^arts — preparation for the woman's life
of wif ehood and motherhood ; but is there not some-
thing more to be learned about motherhood than
merely the physical nurture? Should the spiritual
and intellectual nurture be left any longer to mere
instinct? The ideal woman's college should include
not only the culture studies and training in house-
Vol. 10—25
386 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
hold arts, but that specific preparation for training
the mind and heart of the child which is best learned
through the study of Froebel's principles of child
nurture. Then, indeed, should we have a new gen-
eration. Shall we not look to the South to train this
highest type of womanhood ?
BIBLOGEAPHY. — Reports of State Boards of Education; Keports of
president and secretaries of Southern Kindergarten Association; Re-
ports from United States Bureau of Education, viz.: Statistics of
City School Systems, Statistics of Public and Private Kindergartens,
Early History of the Kindergarten in St. Louis, Mo., and The Kin-
dergarten, by Miss Laura Fisher.
ALICE N. PARKER,
Bichmoncl, Va.
CHAPTER XVII.
GENERAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES IN
THE SOUTH.
"'HE question of the supervision of educa-
tion throughout the United States has been
during its whole history a matter in confu-
sion. Under the constitution of the United
States the General government does not assume the
support or direction of education. This is left
entirely to the states. It is true that the United
States maintains a Bureau of Education, but the
work of this office has been almost wholly statistical
and its director has no power to supervise the
educational systems of the various states.
In the states themselves the supervision of educa-
tion has rested in the hands of a superintendent,
either elected or appointed. His authority, however,
has never extended beyond the limits of the sec-
EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES. 387
ondary schools. The state universities and state col-
leges, no less than those on private foundation, have
not been under the supervision of any central author-
ity, nor has there been in the various states any
agency whose business it was to scrutinize or to
report upon the work of these institutions of higher
learning.
It is partly out of the lack of any central super-
vision, either from the National government or from
the state, that there have grown up various boards
which seek in the first place to stimulate education,
and in the second place to criticize and in a measure
direct it. These boards may be roughly classed in
two groups: denominational boards of education
organized with the purpose of making more effective
the educational agencies of the denomination; sec-
ondly, institutions resting upon endowment fur-
nished by individuals. These last have no formal
authority over educational institutions, but are seek-
ing to deal with education from the standpoint of
a whole section or of the whole country. Some of
these agencies are devoted entirely to the South;
in the case of others the field of work covers the
United States ; and in the case of the Carnegie Foun-
dation for the Advancement of Teaching, Canadian
educational institutions and interests are included,
as well as those of the United States. These agencies
in the order of their establishment are the following :
When founded.
1. The Peabody Education Fund 1867
2. The Slater Fund 1882
3. The Southern Education Board 1901
4. The General Education Board 1903
5. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. 1905
6. The Russell Sage Foundation 1907
7. The Jeanes Fund 1907
The Peafcody Education Fund.
This fund, established in 1867 by George Peabody,
388 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
was instituted for the express purpose of serving
education in the South. In the language of the
articles of endowment the money was to be used for
promoting "intellectual, moral and industrial edu-
cation in the most destitute portion of the Southern
states."
The first gift consisted of securities amounting to
$2,100,000, of which $1,000,000 were in Mississippi
state bonds. These bonds were afterwards repudi-
ated, and Mr. Peabody gave an additional $1,000,000
in 1869. Of this sum $384,000 were Florida bonds
issued while that state was a territory, which bonds
for certain reasons have never been recognized as
legal by the state. The fund was placed in charge of
fifteen trustees who were well-known men, Robert
C. Winthrop, of Massachusetts, being the first
chairman.
The trustees had authority to spend the interest
and 40 per cent, of the principal the first two years.
After that time such principal as remained was to
continue intact for thirty years, when the whole
amount might be divided and distributed for edu-
cational purposes, as the judgment of the then
trustees might determine.
The rules governing the use of this fund have
been broad and precautions ; they have always aimed
not to interfere with established schools. On the
other hand, efforts were made to work with existing
schools, to strengthen schools that were weak, and
to promote especially elementary education. As a
rule, no school has received aid unless it had in
attendance at least 100 students and maintained a
school for ten months in the year. A district desir-
ing a share of the fund was asked to contribute twice
the amount granted by the trustees. A school having
an attendance of 100 pupils and complying with
other conditions might have $300: if 200 pupils were
EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES. 389
in attendance, it might have $600 ; and a school with
300 in attendance might have $1,000. Normal schools
and training schools for teachers have received spe-
cial attention, and scholarships have been granted
to many deserving pupils. These scholarships were
at first $200, later $100.
From the establishment of the fund in 1867 to the
end of the thirty years, the total amount paid out
was about $2,600,000, the greater part of this being
used in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida,
Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, and
West Virginia.
The trustees of this foundation have for some
years been seriously considering the question of
distributing the money to particular institutions and
closing the trust. In January, 1905, a resolution to
this effect was adopted and the terms upon which
the distribution should be made were agreed upon.
These terms require the completion of certain con-
ditions on the part of other persons or institutions.
There is every reason to suppose that these condi-
tions will be met, so that it is extremely likely that
within a limited period this agency will cease to
exist as a separate educational force.
The present officers of the Peabody board are:
President, Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller, 1901 F
street N. W., Washington, D. C. ; secretary, Samuel
A. Green, 1154 Boylston street, Boston, Mass. ; gen-
eral agent, Wickliffe Eose, 2 Rector street. New
York.
The John F. Slater Fund.
The Slater Fund was the gift of John Fox Slater,
of Norwich, Conn., to the cause of educating the
negroes of the South, and originally consisted of the
sum of $1,000,000. The gift was made in 1882 to a
board of trustees, who were to hold the principal and
390 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
expend the interest in promoting institutions already
established on a permanent basis. In acknowledg-
ment of this philanthropy Congress voted the donor
thanks and a medal. By the terms of the gift neither
principal nor income is to be expended on building
or grounds. The fund is expended principally in
helping students of, and preparing teachers for, the
manual training schools, agricultural and mechanical
colleges and technological institutions.
The fund is a potential agency in working out the
problem of the education of the negro, and over
$500,000 have already been expended. By the extraor-
dinary fidelity and financial ability of the treasurer
(Morris K. Jesup) the fund, while keeping up annual
appropriations, has increased to $1,500,000. Schools
established by states, denominations, and individuals
are helped by annual donations. Among the most
prominent are the Hampton Normal and Industrial
School, the Spelman School, the Tuskegee School,
and schools at Orangeburg, S. C. ; Tougaloo, Miss.;
Marshall, Tex. ; Ealeigh, N. C. ; New Orleans. La. ;
the Meharry Medical College, at Nashville, etc.
The present officers of the board are: President,
Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller, 1801 F street N.
W., Washington, D. C. ; general agent, Dr. Wallace
Buttrick, 2 Eector street, New York City.
The Southern Education Board.
There began some years ago in a most modest
way a series of conferences for education in the
South. The moving spirit in this effort was Mr.
Robert C. Ogden, of New York, and he gathered
about him a group of earnest and influential men,
coming both from the South and from the North.
The fourth of these conferences was held at Winston-
Salem in 1901, at which place a number of Southern
leaders of eminence were present. Out of these con-
EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES. 391
ferences grew the conviction expressed in a resolu-
tion adopted at this meeting that the time had come
for the organization of an executive board to deal
with education in the South. The naming of this
board was left to the president, Mr. Ogden, and he
was added by special vote as a member of the board.
The board was finally brought together in August,
1901, under the name of the Southern Education
Board, and included, besides Mr. Ogden, Dr. J. L. M.
Curry, President E. A. Alderman, Mr. C. D. Mclver,
President C. W. Dabney, Dr. H. B. Frissell, Dr.
Wallace Buttrick, and Mr. George Foster Peabody.
Mr. William H. Baldwin, Mr. xVlbert Shaw, Mr. Wal-
ter H. Page, and Mr. H. H. Hanna were immediately
added to the board. There have been in all twenty-
one members, of whom fourteen were natives of the
South, and all have been identified in many ways
with Southern interests and progress. Immediately
after the organization of the Southern Education
Board steps were taken to carry out the design for
which it was created. Field work was provided for
by the appointment of Dr. Curry as a supervising
director, with Dr. Alderman and Mr. Mclver and
Dr. Frissell as district directors, and with Dr. Davis
as chief of the bureau of investigation, information
and publication. With the view of making more
effective progress in the work with negroes Dr.
Booker T. Washington was appointed field agent.
Mr. Edgar Gardner Murphy was also associated
with the chairman as secretary in executive work
and rendered service of the highest value.
This board quickly secured the cooperation of
effective agencies in the various Southern states and
began the distribution of valuable information
throughout the South with regard to education and
educational methods. By January, 1902, a thor-
oughly organized campaign of education had been
392 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
entered upon, with the cordial approval of the South-
ern press and of the Southern people. Printed leaf-
lets were distributed to newspapers, copied into their
columns, and sent abroad by thousands.
In general, the object of the association is the
awakening of public opinion in the South and such a
stimulation of public and private interest as will
result in increased revenues for schools.
The Southern Education Board has no fixed
endowment. Its annual income has been entirely
supplied by personal contributions from year to
year.
The president is Eobert C. Ogden, New York, and
the executive secretary, Edgar Gardner Murphy,
Montgomery, Ala.
The General Education Board.
The General Education Board is an organization
chartered by Congress. The board had its begin-
ning in a meeting at the house of Mr. John D. Kocke-
feller, Jr., in New York, in February, 1902. At
this meeting a temporary organization was formed
and an effort begun for the securing of a charter
from Congress for an organization devoted to the
general purpose of education. A few days later
Mr. John D. Eockefeller pledged to this organiza-
tion the sum of $1,000,000. The movement was in
large measure the outcome of the Southern Educa-
tion Board 's work, and the income from the first gift
was to be used in a study of education in the South.
The board opened an office in New York in April,
1902, and began its work, its first task being that of
a careful examination of the educational conditions
and needs in the Southern states! Consultations
were held with state officers and careful examination
and study were made of the conditions of education
throughout the South. As a result of their delibera-
EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES. 393
tions the board has formulated certain conclusions,
amongst which are: First, the elementary school
cannot be given to a community, but must come out
of the community life ; second, on account of the fact
that the South is largely a rural district with the
exception of certain localities, the community spirit
has not yet been developed ; third, one of the imme-
diate needs is to improve elementary schools in the
South so as to train farmers in scientific methods
and to develop at the same time the community
spirit.
The board has already accomplished much in its
work for this cause. By two subsequent gifts made
in 1905 and 1907, Mr. John D. Eockefeller has
increased the endowment of the General Education
Board to something more than $40,000,000. The
general purpose of the fund is clearly indicated in
the letter of June 30, 1905, from the president, Fred-
erick T. Gates, announcing a gift of $10,000,000. In
that letter he states that the sum is to be held as a
foundation for education, the income to be used for
the benefit of such institutions of learning or
employed in such other ways as the board may deem
best adapted to promote a comprehensive system of
higher education in the United States. In other
words, here is an agency firmly established, which
for the first time in the history of the country under-
takes to deal, not with localities or with isolated
institutions, but with a comprehensive system of edu-
cation for the whole country. Here for the first time
in the organization of any board is frankly stated
the truth that education for the United States is one
and that it must be studied as a whole, if it is to
serve in the largest sense the needs of the whole
people.
Since the reception of this gift in 1905 and 1907,
the General Education Board has gone forward to
394 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
study education from this standpoint. It has in the
South assisted colleges and also administered to the
effort to disseminate information concerning agricul-
tural education, to quicken the intelligence of those
engaged in agriculture, and to foster as directly as
possible through education the economic qualities
of the South, as being the quickest means to the
attainment of high educational ideals. The work of
the board now covers the whole of the United States.
It makes careful studies of the status of education
in the various states, and seeks by the use of its
funds to aid not merely single institutions, but the
general system of education of the region and of the
state. Its work in this direction is of the highest
importance and in the future is likely to be one of the
large factors which shall bring about in the end not
only great educational improvement in particular
sections, but shall also count for a comprehensive
system of education for the whole country.
The president is Frederick T. Gates, and the
secretary, Dr. Wallace Buttrick, 2 Eector street,
New York.
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement
of Teaching had its inception in a letter of Mr.
Andrew Carnegie of date April 16, 1905, in which
he conveyed to the board of trustees designated in
this letter $10,000,000 of 5 per cent bonds of the
United States Steel Corporation to constitute a fund
for the establishment of retiring allowances in col-
leges and to serve generally the cause of higher edu-
cation in the United States, Canada and Newfound-
land. In the spring of 1906 the board, which con-
sists of twenty-five trustees, received from the Con-
gress of the United States a charter of broad char-
acter which enables them to undertake not only the
EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES. 395
work of establishing retiring allowances for teach-
ers, but also enables them to undertake any work
which has to do with the betterment of the teacher's
calling or the promotion of higher education.
Beginning its work in 1906 under these general
conditions, those in charge of the Foundation quickly
recognized that in order to serve education in the
United States and Canada efficiently it would be nec-
essary to make of the Foundation an educational
agency, not a charitable institution. It therefore
immediately proceeded to study the standards of the
various colleges of the United States and Canada
and has adopted certain standards under which it
admits to the system of retiring allowances institu-
tions of learning. It has thus become immediately
a standardizing agency both in the United States
and Canada, and with the aid of its large endow-
ment and with the material benefits which it is able
to give to institutions of learning has already begun
to exert a strong influence in the unifying of
education.
In the original gift of Mr. Carnegie institutions
supported and controlled by a state or province were
not included, but in the spring of 1908 he sent a com-
munication to the board of trustees offering to add
$5,000,000 of 5 per cent bonds to enable the Founda-
tion to include such state universities as might, with
the consent of their legislatures, apply. This gift
was accepted by the trustees, and state institutions
which conform to the requisite standards are, there-
fore, now eligible. The total funds at the command
of the board of trustees now amount to something
over $15,000,000, and the work of the Foundation
for the next ten or fifteen years will lie in large
measure in the direction of standardization of col-
leges and universities, and in the preparation of
careful studies setting forth the conditions of edu-
396 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
cation and the possible opportunities for its improve-
ment. Annual reports are published by the Foun-
dation containing educational statistics and bulletins
on special subjects are printed from time to time.
These may be had on application to the officers.
The president is Henry S. Pritchett, and the sec-
retary, John G. Bowman; offices, 576 Fifth avenue,
New York.
In April, 1907, there was incorporated under the
laws of New York, by special charter, the Eussell
Sage Foundation. The endowment of the Founda-
tion consists of $10,000,000, a gift from Mrs. Mar-
garet Olivia Sage, the widow of the late Russell
Sage. The purpose of the Foundation is denned
in its charter to be the improvement of social and
living conditions in the United States. It is denned
to be within the purposes of the corporation to use
such means to that end as may from time to time
seem desirable to its trustees ; such, for example, as
social and scientific research, the publication of
information, education, the establishment and main-
tenance of charitable agencies or institutions, or
the aid of such agencies or institutions already
established which are engaged in the study or
improvement of social conditions.
There are nine trustees of the Foundation, of
whom Mrs. Sage is herself one.
The Sage Foundation, during the brief period of
its existence, has had time only to examine the field
and to take up certain preliminary studies. It has
begun certain enquiries into social conditions in
large cities, such as New York and Pittsburg, and
has made studies of the economic factors relating
to the physical, moral and social condition of work-
ing people. Its work may be extended under its
EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES. 397
charter to any part of the United States, and doubt-
less in the end a certain part of its energy will be
expended in the South.
The president is Mrs. Russell Sage, and the secre-
tary and director, John M. Glenn; offices, 105 East
Twenty-second street, New York.
The Jeanes Fund for Negro Rural Schools.
By the will of Miss Anna T. Jeanes, of Phila-
delphia, dated April 22, 1907, the sum of $1,000,000
was placed in the hands of two trustees, Booker T.
Washington and Hollis B. Frissell, to be known as
the "Fund for Rudimentary Schools for Southern
Negroes," the income of which is to be devoted "to
the purpose of assisting in the Southern states com-
munity, country and rural schools for the great class
of negroes to whom the small rural and community
schools are alone available." The two trustees
under the authority of the bequest are authorized
and directed to nominate and appoint a board of
trustees. Such a board was organized in November,
1907, consisting of seventeen members and Dr.
James H. Dillard, dean of the college of Tulane
University, New Orleans, has been appointed presi-
dent and administrative officer. Permanent offices
are not yet chosen, but the president may be
addressed at 2 Rector street, New York.
HENRY S. PRITCHETT,
President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teach'
ing.
398 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
CHAPTER XVIII.
EDUCATIONAL IDEALS AND TENDENCIES
IN THE SOUTH.
Early Ideals and Tendencies.
"HE early settlers and founders of the South-
ern states understood something of the value
of education and its relation to industrial,
social, political and religious welfare. In all
the colonies schools and colleges were early estab-
lished. Many of these were endowed with lands and
money. The first constitutions of some of these states
contain clauses recognizing the importance of relig-
ion and learning, and declaring that institutions of
learning should forever be encouraged. The words
liberty, learning, religion and morality ran easily
together and were constantly on the lips of political
and religious leaders. In the early legislatures of
these states many bills were introduced looking to
the establishment of general systems of education
for all the people. In most or all of the states west
of the mountains large areas of public lands were
set apart for education, for the support of ele-
mentary schools or the endowment of academies and
colleges. William and Mary College in Virginia is
one of the oldest in America. The universities of
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Ten-
nessee have all celebrated their centennial anniver-
saries. In 1806 the General Assembly of Tennessee
passed the first of a long succession of Acts, which
resulted in the establishment and maintenance of
one endowed or subsidized academy in each of sixty-
EDUCATIONAL IDEALS. 399
two counties of this state before the beginning of the
War Between the States.
Far-sighted statesmen dreamed of comprehensive
plans for universal education and worked for them
with an energy and persistence which, under favor-
able conditions, would not have failed of greater
success. Among the best known of these plans are
those of Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, and Archi-
bald DeBow Murphey, of North Carolina. Their
ideals are still the inspiration of those who are
working for universal education in these and other
Southern states, and their plans, with such modifica-
tions as are made necessary by the changes of a
century, are at last about to be realized by the chil-
dren of their children's children.
When the Americans from these Southern states
who had settled in Texas declared their indepen-
dence of Mexico, one of the charges made against
the parent state was that it did not foster education.
When, during Jackson's administration, the surplus
in the treasury of the United States was withdrawn
from the National Bank and distributed among the
states, several of the Southern states placed at least
some portion of the same to the credit of their liter-
ary funds. In the last two or three decades before
the war good beginnings were made in a few of these
states in real public school systems of the modern
type. The first State Superintendent of Public
Schools in North Carolina entered upon his office in
1853 and was reappointed from time to time until
after the close of the war. He drove in his buggy
and rode horseback from one end of the state to the
other, preached a crusade of public education, in-
duced the counties to levy taxes, established public
schools, and organized them into a system. His
work soon became known abroad and he was re-
400 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
quested to address the legislatures of other Southern
states on the subject of public education.
Many philanthropic and public-spirited men of
this section gave liberally to the cause of educa-
tion, especially for the poor. John McDonough, a
native of Baltimore and an adopted citizen of New
Orleans, who died in 1850, by his will, left his large
fortune, which included, it is said, the largest landed
estate belonging to any private individual in the
world, to the mayors and aldermen of New Orleans
and Baltimore and their successors in office forever
"for the establishment and support of free schools
in said cities and their respective suburbs, where
the poor (and the poor only) of both sexes, of all
classes and castes of color, shall have admittance,
free of expense, for the purpose of being instructed
in the knowledge of the Lord, and in reading, writ-
ing, arithmetic, history, geography, etc., etc.." pro-
vided the Bible should be used as the principal read-
ing book and that singing should be taught in all
the schools. I believe this is the largest fund ever
yet given by a single individual for elementary edu-
cation. Had it been managed according to the terms
of McDonogh's will, it would by this time have
amounted to scores of millions.
But in most of these states public funds were used
to pay the tuition of the children of the poor, of
those who were willing to take the pauper's oath
that they were unable to pay for the education of
their own children, and the "free" school was re-
garded as a "charity." The rural life, the large
plantation, the labor system and the predominant
traditions of the South all tended to aristocracy and
away from the democracy of the public school as
we know it and as it was coming to be known in
other sections of the country in these decades.
EDUCATIONAL IDEALS. 401
The sons of rich planters and of professional men
were taught by governesses, tutors, private teachers
and in private academies and church schools. From
these they went to some one of the Southern col-
leges, to Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Columbia, or
to one of the English or Scotch universities. The
daughters of these planters and professional men
attended private "boarding" schools, "finishing"
schools, or one of the denominational "female
colleges. ' '
The ideal of elementary and academic education
was discipline. The higher education looked to the
professions of law, medicine and the ministry, to
participation in the affairs of state, or to a life of
refined culture and elegant leisure. It was chiefly
humanistic and literary. Pure mathematics, logic
and metaphysics ranked next in importance. Little
attention was given to the applications of mathe-
matics except in the most primitive kinds of en-
gineering. Laboratories for aid in teaching the
physical sciences were few and meagerly equipped.
There was little or no study of history and economics
after the modern fashion. Prospective physicians
or lawyers read in the offices of prominent practi-
tioners. Most of those who wished more systematic
instruction than could be obtained thus went North.
The South had few colleges of medicine or law. The
higher education of women consisted largely of "ac-
complishments," the chief of which were music, art
and a little French. The ideal of education was to
prepare for leadership in political and social life,
and right well was this purpose accomplished. To
this fact the history of these states and of the Nation
bears witness.
The zeal of various religious denominations mul-
tiplied colleges and academies, both before and after
Vol. 10—26
402 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
the war, and in 'the years of reconstruction the
Masons, Odd Fellows, and other fraternal orders
lent their aid in the establishment and maintenance
of elementary and high schools, mostly of local
patronage.
Educational ideals and practices are always de-
termined by the larger social, political, religious and
industrial ideals, and those in the South have been
no exception to the rule. Aristocratic democracy,
agriculture, feudalistic society, religious zeal and
orthodoxy, resulted in private instruction for those
who were able, charity schools of one kind or an-
other for the children of the poor who desired it,
private academies, church schools and state colleges
and universities with small endowments and little
help from public treasuries for the cultural educa-
tion of the sons of the aristocracy of the large plan-
tation and of professional life. These produced
their legitimate results — on the one hand, a com-
paratively large number of men and women with the
training of the academy and the college ; on the other
hand, total or approximate illiteracy of the masses.
It should be remembered, however, that many ambi-
tious boys of the middle classes and even many sons
of the poor found their way to the academies, col-
leges and universities, and gained from them all
they were capable of giving. There have never been
any fixed social barriers in the South. All lines of
division have been flexible, uncertain and vanishing.
Protestant Christianity, the zeal of the churches,
and the well-nigh universal presence of the Bible
have been important forces against total illiteracy,
and the pulpit and the stump have infused some de-
gree of moral and civic knowledge among the most
ignorant. The active, self-reliant life and labors of
the pioneer developed a shrewd, native intelligence
EDUCATIONAL IDEALS. 403
and a practical ability in dealing with the primitive
conditions and solving the simple but comprehensive
problems of the frontier. If education is adjust-
ment, then many of these men with little of the learn-
ing of the schools and slight acquaintance with books
were well educated. They were strong, masterly,
courageous, quick of perception, sound of judgment
within the limits of their experience, and hopeful
and ambitious of the future.
The negro had no part in the school education of
the ante-bellum period. His training was found in
his life of service. His education was obtained by
direct contact with his master and the members of
his master's family. Few negroes learned either to
read or write.
Changes Wrought by the War.
Individual changes made necessary and possible
by the war and its results have changed and are
changing the life and ideals of the South in every
particular. Racial characteristics, traditions, memo-
ries and love for the old remain, but the spirit and
form of social, political and economic life are new.
Radical changes have come in the ideals of educa-
tion and their tendencies are toward other ends.
War and reconstruction closed most of our col-
leges and universities, impoverished our academies
and church schools, sweeping away endowments and
exhausting the accustomed sources of annual dona-
tions, wasted our school funds and destroyed our
beginnings of public education. Everywhere was
chaos. The proportion of college men and women
decreased and illiteracy among the masses increased
still more rapily. The Federal census of 1870 and of
1880 showed a very large per cent, of illiteracy
among native-born white people of this section, and
404 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
the condition revealed by the census of 1890 was
only a little better. The great majority of freedmen
were of course wholly illiterate.
The smoke had hardly lifted from the fields of
battle before the churches began to establish new
schools, reopen old ones, and collect meager funds
for both. Fraternal organizations built academies
and sometimes provided small endowments for
them. Many officers of the defeated army became
presidents of colleges, principals of academies, pro-
fessors and instructors. The commanding general,
Eobert E. Lee, idolized by his people and respected
everywhere, declined many offers of remunerative
positions and accepted the presidency of a poverty-
stricken college in his own state, that he might de-
vote the remainder of his days "to the training of
men to do their duty in life." General Lee well un-
derstood that the fortunes of the South could be
rebuilt only by education adapted to the new condi-
tions. He was an active member of the educational
society of Virginia and did for it much valuable
work. Many other chieftains followed his example.
Widows and daughters of those who fell on the
fields of battle opened schools for girls, some of
which still exist. Though there were little system
and coordination and though many schools without
endowment or equipment and doing only elementary
work were dubbed colleges and universities and
granted the most pretentious degrees, still valuable
service was done at a time when it was much needed.
At least a portion of what was lacking in equipment
and scholarship was supplied by the manhood,
earnestness and persistence of the teachers. The
ideal was manhood and the purpose preparation for
immediate service under conditions requiring
strength of character, endurance and power of rough
EDUCATIONAL IDEALS. 405
and ready adaptation. It was fortunate that the
men and women on whom these duties and hardships
devolved in these first decades of the new regime
had just this type of education and training. Many
of them had also the severe training of battle and
of the hardships and sacrifices of war.
Schools for Negro Education.
Schools for the education of the negro were soon
established in all parts of the South. Money for
this purpose was given freely by the people of the
North and many earnest men and women hastened
South to teach in these schools. That much of this
money and of these efforts was wasted for want of a
better understanding of the situation and of a better
knowledge of the negro and his needs, was not the
fault of these men and women. It was their misfor-
tune. Most similar efforts under similar conditions
are more or less futile. Much of this work for
negroes was planned and executed in wisdom. Prob-
ably no more effective educational work of a mis-
sionary nature has ever been done anywhere than
that which General Armstrong began at Hampton.
He clearly understood the situation, the needs of
the negro and his limitations, as well as the part
which he must play in the life of the South, where he
lives. Gradually all have learned the lesson more
or less perfectly. The good accomplished by the
men and women sent from the North for the educa-
tion of the negro in the South far outweighs the
evils resulting from misunderstandings and mis-
directed zeal.
The reconstruction governments in many of these
states made some attempt to establish public schools
in imitation of the schools of the North and East.
Early in the seventies those states which had suf-
406 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
fered least from reconstruction made the beginnings
which have grown into the present systems. Other
states followed rapidly, and early in the next decade
fair beginnings had been made in all. The new con-
stitutions adopted in most of these states contained
clauses in regard to universal education. But the
states were poor and burdened with debt, property
values were small, and revenue systems disorgan-
ized. Many men of influence doubted the wisdom of
universal education at public expense. Most doubted
the wisdom of giving school education to the negro.
Only a few believed it advisable to establish high
schools at public expense at all. Thus the leg-
islation of this decade and the next looked to the
maintenance of schools of the most elementary
grade, and the funds for the support of these were
very meager. The terms were short, the attendance
irregular, the supervision inadequate. In the cities
and larger towns more liberal taxes were levied,
more complete systems were provided, school terms
were lengthened to seven, eight, nine or ten months.
Schools were graded, grammar schools were estab-
lished, and a few cities had high schools. But out-
side of these few cities the burden of all education
above the most elementary grades still rested on the
private and denominational schools. On these, too,
we depended for the education of teachers for the
public schools Little attempt was made to provide
the means of professional education and training
for teachers. Indeed, it was not generally believed
to be necessary or advisable. Thus professional in-
efficiency of teachers was added to the other handi-
caps of the public school system.
The real statesmen of the day understood this
difficulty and would have remedied it could they
have had the support of the smaller politicians, the
EDUCATIONAL IDEALS. 407
masses of the people, and their representatives in
city councils and state legislatures. In his message
to the General Assembly of 1877, Governor Vance, of
North Carolina, the great war governor, urged the
establishment of normal schools for the education
and training of both white and colored teachers.
"It is impossible," he says, "to have an effective
public school system without providing for the train-
ing of teachers. The blind cannot lead the blind.
Mere literary attainments are not sufficient to make
their possessor a competent instructor. There must
be added the ability to influence the young and to
communicate knowledge. There must be a mastery
of the best modes of conducting schools, of bringing
out the latent possibilities, intellectual and moral, of
the pupil's nature. In some rare cases these quali-
ties are inborn, but generally it is an immense ad-
vantage to teachers to be trained by those who have
studied and mastered the methods which have been
found by experience to be the most successful in dis-
pelling ignorance and inculcating knowledge. The
schools in which this training is given, called normal
colleges or normal schools, have been found by expe-
rience to be the most efficient agencies in raising up
a body of teachers who infuse new life and vigor
into the public schools. There is urgent need for one
at least in North Carolina." But North Carolina
waited fourteen years for its establishment.
In this same message Governor Vance pleads for
the establishment of a normal school for negroes in
words the wisdom of which may still be pondered by
those who love these states and desire their welfare.
"A school of similar character should be established
for the education of colored teachers, the want of
which is more deeply felt by the black race even than
[by] the white. In addition to the fact that it is our
408 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
plain duty to make no discrimination in the matter
of public education, I cannot too strongly urge upon
you the importance of the consideration that what-
ever of education we may be able to give the children
of the state should be imparted under our own
auspices and with a thorough North Carolina spirit.
Many philosophical reasons can be given in support
of this proposition." Governor Vance speaks at
some length of the negro's eagerness for education
and says: "This desire for education is an ex-
tremely creditable one and should be gratified as
far as our means will permit. In short, I regard it
as an unmistakable policy to imbue these black peo-
ple with a hearty North Carolina feeling and make
them cease to look abroad for the aids to their prog-
ress in civilization and the protection of their rights,
as they have been taught to do, and teach them to
look to their own state instead; to teach them that
their welfare is indissolubly linked with ours."
I have quoted Governor Vance at length because
his words are still worth careful consideration, and
because, being a man of the people, in close touch and
sympathy with the heart of the great masses, he
understood them better even than they understood
themselves, and caught their spirit while they were
yet unconscious of it. It is ever thus that the man of
the people voices their sentiment still unformed and
becomes prophetic of the future, while those who
live apart in aristocratic seclusion mistake their own
prejudices for rising public opinion and streams of
tendency.
The Peabody Normal College at Nashville and a
good number of summer schools and teachers' insti-
tutes, most of which received some help from the
Peabody Fund, did much for the professional life
and spirit of white teachers. Negro schools assisted
EDUCATIONAL IDEALS. 409
by the Slater Fund and the Hand Fund and some-
times helped by the state, did something for the
negro teachers, but nothing was done by the states
in any large or permanent way for the education and
training of teachers until the last decade of the cen-
tury. In this decade normal schools for the educa-
tion of white teachers were established in Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana,
Florida, Texas and Alabama. In the first and last
of these beginnings had been made a little earlier,
and there was a department of normal instruction in
the Industrial Institute and College for Women at
Columbus, established in 1885.
I believe there was no legal provision for sec-
ondary or high school education in the public schools
out of cities and special school districts before the
beginning of the present century, except in Ten-
nessee; and in this state these laws had little prac-
tical result.
We still wandered in our forty years' wilderness
of poverty and uncertainty. In most states debts
were large and revenues were small. For the most
primitive and necessary public improvements coun-
ties and municipalities sold their bonds, bearing
high rates of interest, through Northern banks. For
roads, factories and mills money was borrowed
abroad. The energies of the people, in the public
councils and out, were directed toward the readjust-
ment and reestablishment of political, social and
industrial life and institutions. Public education
lagged. According to the report of the United States
Commissioner of Education for the year 1900-01, the
average length of school term in the South Atlantic
states, including Delaware, Maryland and District
of Columbia with their long terms, was only 97 days ;
in the South central division 91.6 days, while the
410 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
average number of days of schooling given for each
child of school age, five to eighteen years, in the
states usually classed as Southern, averaged from
30.2 in North Carolina to 50.3 in Tennessee and 54.2
in West Virginia. The average annual salary of
teachers was a good deal less than the cost of feeding
a prisoner in the county jail. The estimated value of
all public school property in the thirteen Southern
states was $40,000,000, and more than $9,000,000 of
this was in Texas. The total public school revenue
was $24,000,000, of which nearly $5,000,000 was in
Texas. The average amount expended for each
child of school age was about $3. There were still
few or no public high schools outside of cities and
towns. At least five states had no public normal
schools and the appropriations to higher education
were still very small. There were no compulsory
school attendance laws in effect. The census of 1900
showed some progress in the reduction of illiteracy,
but the figures were still very high, ranging, for
native whites, from 6.1 per cent, in Texas and 8 per
cent, in Mississippi to 19.5 per cent, in North Caro-
lina; and for negroes from 32.3 per cent, in West
Virginia and 38.2 per cent, in Texas to 57.4 per cent,
in Alabama and 61.1 per cent, in Louisiana.
The present remarkable progress in public educa-
tion in these states belongs almost wholly to the
present decade and to the last six years, within
which time more has been accomplished, if measured
by appropriations, houses and equipment, and
definite legislation, than in all the years that went
before.
In a movement so extensive, so great and so new
as this, it is difficult for one who is immersed in it to
say definitely just what are the tendencies. Common
ideals have hardly formulated themselves clearly
EDUCATIONAL IDEALS. 411
enough for intelligent statement. There is danger
of mistaking a passing personal impression for a
general ideal, and an eddy or cross current for a
permanent tendency; but so much at least seems to
be clear : Education in the South is to be universal.
The public school is to be our most democratic insti-
tution. Through it equal opportunity is to be given
to all, high and low, rich and poor, black and white,
male and female, to develop their native powers, to
prepare themselves for the duties and responsibili-
ties of citizenship in a democratic state, to fit them-
selves to find and hold their places in a mobile demo-
cratic society, to gain the knowledge and skill neces-
sary to self-preservation in the fierce competition of
an industrial age and for participation in the world-
wide cooperation for lifting all life to higher levels,
to enable them to support themselves and those de-
pendent on them, to add their part to the common-
wealth, and to think for themselves in an age of
almost absolute freedom of thought, even in things
most sacred.
Only about a year ago, one little girl in a strag-
gling village in the blue grass region of Middle Ten-
nessee asked another, "Do you go to the pay school
or the poor school?" And the curl of her lip ex-
pressed the sentiment of her immediate associates in
the adult world. There are still those who speak of
public education as a "noble charity," but the num-
ber grows smaller each year, both by translation and
by conversion. The sentiment is a vanishing quan-
tity and is rapidly becoming a negligible one in our
body politic. The public school is no longer the
"free" school or the "poor" school, but the instru-
ment through which the democratic state is to per-
form its highest function — the fullest, freest educa-
tion of all its citizens for the most perfect living —
412 EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF THE SOUTH.
a just burden on the public revenues, and under
obligations to serve the highest and the richest as
well as the poorest and the most humble. In some
such terms may be expressed, more or less inade-
quately, the ideal which is struggling into conscious-
ness in the minds of all.
A few specific tendencies may be indicated with
some certainty:
Longer School Terms.
We are no longer content with rural school terms
of three or four months and urban school terms of
five or six months. In fact, we have never been
content with these short terms, and in many places
the short terms of public schools have been length-
ened by private subscriptions. The tendency of the
urban communities is to terms of nine months, or
thirty-six weeks, and most cities and towns of any
size have attained this standard. It is not now easy
for a city or town anywhere in the South to render
an acceptable excuse for cutting its school term to
six or seven months. In the rural districts the
accepted standard seems to be eight months with a
minimum of six months, though both are still ideal.
In several states the law requires a minimum of six
months, and in others special appropriations are
made to assist in extending the terms of weak
schools in poor communities to this length. The
average length of term in rural schools has in-
creased from 10 to 30 per cent, since 1900.
Public High Schools.
As already shown, at least some of the Southern
states aided by public funds in the maintenance of
academies or high schools in the first half of the
last century, and most of the energies of private
EDUCATIONAL IDEALS. 413
individuals, religious societies and fraternal orders
were spent in this direction. But the Act of the
General Assembly of Tennessee of 1899, authorizing
county courts to levy a special tax for high schools
and appoint county boards of education for their
control, was probably the first legislation looking to
the maintenance of separate high schools as a part
of the public school system of any state. At the
beginning of this century there were very few rural
public high schools in the South, probably less than a
dozen, and the cities with well-equipped high schools
of full four years were very few. To anyone who
had suggested then the establishment of general
systems of high schools, even in the meeting of any
educational association in this section, the answer
would have come, quick and decisive, that the time
was not yet, that the people were not ready for
it. But, in theory at least, the high school is now
recognized everywhere as an essential and necessary
part of the public school system. The Virginias, the
Carolinas, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisi-
ana, Texas and Tennessee all make special appro-
priations out of the treasury of the state to aid and
encourage the establishment and maintenance of
public high schools, and most of them give aid in
such way as to encourage counties and local com-
munities to give from two to ten times as much as
they receive from the state. A recent Act of the
General Assembly of Kentucky requires the county
boards of education to establish and maintain at
lea 
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Open Library
American Libraries
TV News
Understanding 9/11